The Oscars are tomorrow night, but tonight are the Oscars of Independent film, the Independent Spirit Awards... I'm so excited. Not only because there's a bevy of really brilliant work nominated (Milk, Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, The Wackness, Rachel Getting Married, Frozen River, The Wrestler, etc.), but because this year, I have some personal investment in a nominee. My cousin Nina is a producer based in Mississippi and her movie Ballast is up for Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead, Best Supporting Male, and Best Cinematography. Yep, that's 6 Bests.
I'll be rooting for her here in NYC, wishing I was in LA to celebrate with her when the Ballast team comes home with a handful of awards!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
To tell the truth
Lie to Me is a show on Fox about a lying specialist-- dont those actually exist?--who covers cases and helps investigators and government agencies find out the truth about what's going on.
Sure, fun premise, some witty dialogue and interesting stories...there's even a character who's taken an honesty oath and speaks everything his mind, which makes for some good tv. Think House, with criminals instead of medical cases. What I'm enjoying the most, though, is the way the show integrates actual events, actual people, actual liars into the narrative.
For example, Cal Lightman, our Truth Master, Lie Catcher, Human Lie Detector etc. analyzes a picture of a Papua elder expressing a look of disgust and then juxtaposes it with a picture of Jessica Simpson (I wish I had a clip...if I find one I'll post it), proving that our faces may be different, but some expressions are universal.
I'm taking mental notes, trying to see if I can become better at catching a lie...or telling one
Sure, fun premise, some witty dialogue and interesting stories...there's even a character who's taken an honesty oath and speaks everything his mind, which makes for some good tv. Think House, with criminals instead of medical cases. What I'm enjoying the most, though, is the way the show integrates actual events, actual people, actual liars into the narrative.
For example, Cal Lightman, our Truth Master, Lie Catcher, Human Lie Detector etc. analyzes a picture of a Papua elder expressing a look of disgust and then juxtaposes it with a picture of Jessica Simpson (I wish I had a clip...if I find one I'll post it), proving that our faces may be different, but some expressions are universal.
I'm taking mental notes, trying to see if I can become better at catching a lie...or telling one
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Kelly Brown: making things happen
"I was supposed to be Punky, you know," Kelly Brown says, playing with her lighter. She puts out another cigarette in a nearly filled ashtray, exhaling smoke as she speaks in rapid, spitfire sentences. Her voice is a raspy but playful, like a grown up Punky Brewster. "It was down to me or Soleil Moon-Frye. I kid you not."
She’s sitting in what is now the living room of her rent-controlled Park Slope apartment. The long, narrow layout of the place is unusual; it took Brown months before she finally settled on a room arrangement.This used to be her bedroom, and then it was her dining room, then it was her guestroom, until finally she decided to make it her living room. She has lived here with her cat, Oliver, for nearly a year now since relocating to New York after over 10 years of working in Hollywood. Moving comes naturally to Brown; she has spent much of her life migrating from place to place, from career to career, uprooting herself from the most comfortable situations. Even sitting still sometimes seems like a challenge—she fidgets in her chair, looking anxious or excited or late for an appointment. After 10 years of knowing all the right people, making all the right friends, Brown packed up her things and moved to Manhattan, where she knew no one, to try to make movies from the ground up.
Though her childhood dreams were to be in front of the camera, her involvement behind the camera began accidentally. She was young, eighteen, and needed a job. Because her father was a screenwriter, she had grown up with people in the industry. The first movie she worked on was a small independent. "I think I got paid like $50 a day.” She says. “I couldn't even tell you what it was about." Soon, she started getting gigs through word of mouth. Moving set to set, she would go on day shoots for small films that needed help where she would act as a production assistant. Sometimes her friends were on a show or in the movie and would just bring her to set. "Then I'd make nice with the production coordinators" she says.
When she was 20, she was offered a job in music management. She helped manage the blues-rock band the Black Crowes and revolutionized the way fan clubs were run. The Black Crowes were one of the first bands to offer special tickets to fan club members; the first 20 rows of seats were reserved for fan club members only. "(lead singer) Chris Robinson wanted to see his true fans when he sang," Brown says, lighting another cigarette. And in most stadiums, you can only see the first 20 rows.
Though she was having a great time, Brown knew she didn't want to be in the music business. After 6 years in the field, she realized it was just a job to her— So, being the mover that she is, she left.
But music wasn't done with her. While she was in the middle of producing a reality television show for MTV ("A Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but for adults…it was actually brilliant."), Brown heard that a song she had written for the soap opera Port Charles was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Brown’s song, "Hey Sister," was originally written about her little sister moving to Texas, but, like every effective soap opera song, it was reworked to be about a girl who finds out she has a twin sister and when she finds her, learns the twin is dead. "In the end," Brown says, breaking into a girlish smile, "I lost to a song about a dead midget."
Brown had just finished producing a short film when she heard about a deal on an apartment in Brooklyn that was too good to pass up. “So, I just up and left,” she says, fiddling with her lighter again. Brown wasn’t afraid of the effects it would have on her career; she knew she would be able to do film and television consistently in New York, and after growing up in Los Angeles, “it was time to leave the nest—at 32 years old,” she says, laughing.
This has been her biggest move yet, and she says, the most fulfilling. “I hadn’t had a ‘first’ in a really long time,” she says. Her career has kept is keeping up with her. She's casting for MTV, she's co-writing a show, and she's trying to produce two films. Right now, one of her first projects out of Los Angeles is merging two major parts of her life—music and film—into a biopic on the nearly forgotten hillbilly rock pioneer Eddie Cochran. The only difference is, now she's in New York, where she knows no one. "In LA, everything is about networking," she says. And after years of being the person people would network through to get to celebrities, Brown now has the chance to learn for herself how to work in the business. “In LA, everyone is talking about what they're going to do or what they want to do,” she says. “In New York, they're just doing it."
"I can't not be working towards something," she says. "You just don't succeed if you're sitting on your ass."
She’s sitting in what is now the living room of her rent-controlled Park Slope apartment. The long, narrow layout of the place is unusual; it took Brown months before she finally settled on a room arrangement.This used to be her bedroom, and then it was her dining room, then it was her guestroom, until finally she decided to make it her living room. She has lived here with her cat, Oliver, for nearly a year now since relocating to New York after over 10 years of working in Hollywood. Moving comes naturally to Brown; she has spent much of her life migrating from place to place, from career to career, uprooting herself from the most comfortable situations. Even sitting still sometimes seems like a challenge—she fidgets in her chair, looking anxious or excited or late for an appointment. After 10 years of knowing all the right people, making all the right friends, Brown packed up her things and moved to Manhattan, where she knew no one, to try to make movies from the ground up.
Though her childhood dreams were to be in front of the camera, her involvement behind the camera began accidentally. She was young, eighteen, and needed a job. Because her father was a screenwriter, she had grown up with people in the industry. The first movie she worked on was a small independent. "I think I got paid like $50 a day.” She says. “I couldn't even tell you what it was about." Soon, she started getting gigs through word of mouth. Moving set to set, she would go on day shoots for small films that needed help where she would act as a production assistant. Sometimes her friends were on a show or in the movie and would just bring her to set. "Then I'd make nice with the production coordinators" she says.
When she was 20, she was offered a job in music management. She helped manage the blues-rock band the Black Crowes and revolutionized the way fan clubs were run. The Black Crowes were one of the first bands to offer special tickets to fan club members; the first 20 rows of seats were reserved for fan club members only. "(lead singer) Chris Robinson wanted to see his true fans when he sang," Brown says, lighting another cigarette. And in most stadiums, you can only see the first 20 rows.
Though she was having a great time, Brown knew she didn't want to be in the music business. After 6 years in the field, she realized it was just a job to her— So, being the mover that she is, she left.
But music wasn't done with her. While she was in the middle of producing a reality television show for MTV ("A Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but for adults…it was actually brilliant."), Brown heard that a song she had written for the soap opera Port Charles was nominated for a Daytime Emmy. Brown’s song, "Hey Sister," was originally written about her little sister moving to Texas, but, like every effective soap opera song, it was reworked to be about a girl who finds out she has a twin sister and when she finds her, learns the twin is dead. "In the end," Brown says, breaking into a girlish smile, "I lost to a song about a dead midget."
Brown had just finished producing a short film when she heard about a deal on an apartment in Brooklyn that was too good to pass up. “So, I just up and left,” she says, fiddling with her lighter again. Brown wasn’t afraid of the effects it would have on her career; she knew she would be able to do film and television consistently in New York, and after growing up in Los Angeles, “it was time to leave the nest—at 32 years old,” she says, laughing.
This has been her biggest move yet, and she says, the most fulfilling. “I hadn’t had a ‘first’ in a really long time,” she says. Her career has kept is keeping up with her. She's casting for MTV, she's co-writing a show, and she's trying to produce two films. Right now, one of her first projects out of Los Angeles is merging two major parts of her life—music and film—into a biopic on the nearly forgotten hillbilly rock pioneer Eddie Cochran. The only difference is, now she's in New York, where she knows no one. "In LA, everything is about networking," she says. And after years of being the person people would network through to get to celebrities, Brown now has the chance to learn for herself how to work in the business. “In LA, everyone is talking about what they're going to do or what they want to do,” she says. “In New York, they're just doing it."
"I can't not be working towards something," she says. "You just don't succeed if you're sitting on your ass."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tips to becoming more Indian: 1. Go to India, 2. See Slumdog Millionaire.
I just got back from my first trip to India in 20 years. The last time I went, I wasn’t old enough to form my own opinions or memories of the experience. Growing up, India was the place that my friends’ families made a yearly pilgrimage to; it was a place that everyone had left for something better. This was what I thought about India. This was before I met her.
I went to New Delhi, Baroda, Baruch, Surat, and Mumbai. I traveled by trains and cars so that I could see the things in between. I saw entire villages made out plastic bags and tarp; I saw unclothed children playing with abandoned kites along train tracks; I saw starving cows standing beside parked motorcycles. These are images I can’t shake, moments that introduced me to an India I had only heard about.
In Surat, incense fragrances air that feels heavy with exhaust from cars and rickshaws. In Baroda, there are colors everywhere—ripe fruits and vibrant dresses that merchants sell roadside, kites strewn like confetti over dirt sidewalks. There’s not a moment of silence. Hawkers pace alleyways and neighborhoods while the sun rises, calling out names of fruits and vegetables I’ve never heard before. Late at night, motorcycles zoom past windows of quiet, sleeping houses and sleeping beggars.
Like an idiot, I forgot my camera at home, so I had to take mental pictures in my head. Before I left the city for India, I watched a darling of a movie called Slumdog Millionaire, which, I’m sure by now you’ve heard of. I was proud of it before I left; there are some things that just make you proud to be Indian (read: Jhumpa Lahiri stories, Bollywood, Deepak Chopra, etc.). But after actually going to Mumbai, the city that the film so artfully embodies, my chest swells in a way it couldn’t before.
I went to New Delhi, Baroda, Baruch, Surat, and Mumbai. I traveled by trains and cars so that I could see the things in between. I saw entire villages made out plastic bags and tarp; I saw unclothed children playing with abandoned kites along train tracks; I saw starving cows standing beside parked motorcycles. These are images I can’t shake, moments that introduced me to an India I had only heard about.
In Surat, incense fragrances air that feels heavy with exhaust from cars and rickshaws. In Baroda, there are colors everywhere—ripe fruits and vibrant dresses that merchants sell roadside, kites strewn like confetti over dirt sidewalks. There’s not a moment of silence. Hawkers pace alleyways and neighborhoods while the sun rises, calling out names of fruits and vegetables I’ve never heard before. Late at night, motorcycles zoom past windows of quiet, sleeping houses and sleeping beggars.
Like an idiot, I forgot my camera at home, so I had to take mental pictures in my head. Before I left the city for India, I watched a darling of a movie called Slumdog Millionaire, which, I’m sure by now you’ve heard of. I was proud of it before I left; there are some things that just make you proud to be Indian (read: Jhumpa Lahiri stories, Bollywood, Deepak Chopra, etc.). But after actually going to Mumbai, the city that the film so artfully embodies, my chest swells in a way it couldn’t before.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
some valentine's day reflections.
I don't hate valentine's day; i resent valentine's day.
That said, let us come together, girls of all genres: single and taken, spoken and unspoken for, and let's go see this chick flick, if only for the sake of solidarity.
Sure, it was invented by hallmark. Okay, everyday should be valentine's day. the commercialization of showing you care isn't what gets me; i am not worried about the mortality of chivalry and romance. I'm mostly mad about feeling discriminated against.
In a lot of ways, valentine's day is like a party that single people aren't invited to. it's a potluck for couples. I'm relatively cognizant of my singlehood all the other 364 days, but i feel like each year invitations go out to couples everywhere, and if you're not on the couple train by february, you're out of luck.
So, your friends get invitations, and all around you, everyone is asking, "are you going to the party saturday?!" and if you say you have no plans, they say, "oh, thats ok," awkwardly, kicking themselves for not realizing that you didn't get invited.
and then...THEN. they say, oh, you should celebrate anyway, even if there's no special someone in your life. they might as well be saying, "oh, you didn't get invited to the party? it's not a big deal, you should come...come! it'll be fun! it's not a problem, we're all going, just come with us!"
the last thing i want to do is crash a party i wasn't invited to, especially if the last-minute, make-shift invite comes out of pity. "no, thank you," i say. " i actually got an invitation the other day to clean my bathroom, watch movies online and eat cold pizza by myself."
That said, let us come together, girls of all genres: single and taken, spoken and unspoken for, and let's go see this chick flick, if only for the sake of solidarity.
Monday, February 16, 2009
the new breed of candid camera?
Over the summer I saw this experimental film called Railed, directed by Ryan Fox and produced by our friend Kelly Brown. There's a great write up about it here. It's a totally new way of using feature length film to entertain audiences, and gives new meaning to the traditional candid camera. Here's what it's about, briefly:
The film is a reality-movie/staged-documentary. Think Real World-meets-Darjeeling Limited.
There are only two actors in the film--the rest are just unsuspecting passengers aboard a cross-country train. The actors, a man and a woman, break into a lover's quarrel in a busy train car. Then, unscripted, they seek the guidance of the other non-actor passengers on the train.
The whole film was shot with strategically placed hidden cameras.
I wouldn't even call it a film; it feels more like a social experiment caught on camera. It's an amazingly clever look at the human condition--sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes heartwarming. Railed shows us how we treat strangers in need and how everyone thinks they have the answer to our problems.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Pushing the limits
Has anyone heard of this movie, "Push: based on the novel by Sapphire"? Not to be mistaken for the new Dakota Fanning flick, "Push" (apples and oranges, anyone?), the tiny Lionsgate movie made quite an impression at Sundance and has been making news for pushing the limits of cinema storytelling. Every review I've read has mentioned how depressing the premise is, and they're absolutely right: an obese teenage girl sexually abused by her father, physically abused by her mother just trying to get through the day.
I don't know about you, but the movies I've been planning on watching (read: chick flicks) don't even try to dabble on this heavy stuff, probably because in bleak times, the last thing people want to do is watch bleak movies. But I think there's something to be said for a little film that addresses truly serious issues and even challenges what is appropriate to send to theaters. It's a nice change.
And for a movie that deals with such difficult themes and might not be at all what an audience is looking for these days, it's gotten some serious critical acclaim, not to mention it won a Grand Jury prize, Audience Award, and Special Jury prize at Sundance. That's a lot of hope for times like these
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Behind the Scenes
Recently, film producer Kelly Brown took a minute to sit down with me and answer some questions about her career in music, film and television. We covered a lot of ground—from her aspirations to be a child star to her Emmy nomination to her recent move from Los Angeles to NYC.
When did you start thinking about a career in film?
Pretty much when I was about 6 or 7.Ireally wanted to be an actor...or so I thought. I used to watch movies and then lock myself away in my room and recreate them…I was obsessed with soundtracks too, so I would recreate the movies, but add characters and scenes and of course montages to the soundtracks.
But I think the first time I ever realized that being behind the camera was what I wanted to do happened accidentally...I was young (18) needed a job and so I got one on a small film as a PA.
How did you hear about movies that you worked on?
I would just get some gigs through word of mouth and sometimes my friends were on the show or in the movie and would just bring me to set and I’d make nice with the production coordinators, haha. I grew up with actors and my family were all in camera and my dad was a writer, so he'd make a call and then they would make a call and then I'd get a job somehow. I got offered a job in a music management office when I was about 20.
And you made a brief transition into music?
Stayed in music for about 6 years.
Not so brief.
I was being groomed to be a manager....to be David Ryan Harris' manager, actually. I helped manage The Black Crowes...i started their fan club. We were one of the first bands to offer tickets to fan club members. We'd secure the first 20 rows of seats for fan club members only. Chris Robinson (the lead singer) wanted to see his true fans when he sang and in a stadium, you can only see the first 20 rows.
So you were exposed to music—how did you wind up with an Emmy nomination in 2003?
I had been writing some stuff and playing it for my dad and he was writing for (Daytime Soap) Port Charles that had a fake band and the band members were becoming part of a bigger story line, so they needed a songwriter. My dad's work partner suggested me—she had heard some of the stuff—my dad reluctantly told me about it and said "You gotta do this on your own...if they find out you're my daughter, you won't get it"
The nomination was for “Hey Sister,” which was actually the first song I ever wrote when I learned guitar. I wrote it about my sister moving to Texas. But I changed the lyrics to be about a girl who found out she had a twin sister and when she found her, she learned the twin had died.
Listen to Hey Sister
...I lost to a song about a dead midget.
At the same time, I was working on producing a show for MTV—a sort of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood for adults. It was actually brilliant.
Its been a few years since then. What are you up to now?
…Not much has changed...I'm casting a show for MTV, writing a tv show for someone and trying to produce two films on my own.
Why did you relocate to NYC?
New York is pretty much the only city you can do film and TV consistently
and i needed to shake things up. i grew up in LA. It was tme to leave the nest...at 32 years old, haha.
I prefer living in NY because in LA, everyone is talking about what they're going to do or what they want to do. In NY, they're just doing it.
I've always been like this: I can't NOT be working towards something...you just don't succeed if you're sitting on your ass.
When did you start thinking about a career in film?
Pretty much when I was about 6 or 7.Ireally wanted to be an actor...or so I thought. I used to watch movies and then lock myself away in my room and recreate them…I was obsessed with soundtracks too, so I would recreate the movies, but add characters and scenes and of course montages to the soundtracks.
But I think the first time I ever realized that being behind the camera was what I wanted to do happened accidentally...I was young (18) needed a job and so I got one on a small film as a PA.
How did you hear about movies that you worked on?
I would just get some gigs through word of mouth and sometimes my friends were on the show or in the movie and would just bring me to set and I’d make nice with the production coordinators, haha. I grew up with actors and my family were all in camera and my dad was a writer, so he'd make a call and then they would make a call and then I'd get a job somehow. I got offered a job in a music management office when I was about 20.
And you made a brief transition into music?
Stayed in music for about 6 years.
Not so brief.
I was being groomed to be a manager....to be David Ryan Harris' manager, actually. I helped manage The Black Crowes...i started their fan club. We were one of the first bands to offer tickets to fan club members. We'd secure the first 20 rows of seats for fan club members only. Chris Robinson (the lead singer) wanted to see his true fans when he sang and in a stadium, you can only see the first 20 rows.
So you were exposed to music—how did you wind up with an Emmy nomination in 2003?
I had been writing some stuff and playing it for my dad and he was writing for (Daytime Soap) Port Charles that had a fake band and the band members were becoming part of a bigger story line, so they needed a songwriter. My dad's work partner suggested me—she had heard some of the stuff—my dad reluctantly told me about it and said "You gotta do this on your own...if they find out you're my daughter, you won't get it"
The nomination was for “Hey Sister,” which was actually the first song I ever wrote when I learned guitar. I wrote it about my sister moving to Texas. But I changed the lyrics to be about a girl who found out she had a twin sister and when she found her, she learned the twin had died.
Listen to Hey Sister
...I lost to a song about a dead midget.
At the same time, I was working on producing a show for MTV—a sort of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood for adults. It was actually brilliant.
Its been a few years since then. What are you up to now?
…Not much has changed...I'm casting a show for MTV, writing a tv show for someone and trying to produce two films on my own.
Why did you relocate to NYC?
New York is pretty much the only city you can do film and TV consistently
and i needed to shake things up. i grew up in LA. It was tme to leave the nest...at 32 years old, haha.
I prefer living in NY because in LA, everyone is talking about what they're going to do or what they want to do. In NY, they're just doing it.
I've always been like this: I can't NOT be working towards something...you just don't succeed if you're sitting on your ass.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
This has nothing to do with movies.
But, as a New Yorker (albeit a transplant), it's only right to pay my respects to the people that make this place so brilliant and alive. Joe Ades was a staple at the Union Square marketplace where I spent countless weekends. He was sweet and charismatic; I always saw him surrounded by peels and people.
He was a spectacle-- arbitrary, out of place, welcoming and something you'd only find in this city. He embodied some of the best things about New York. Now that he's gone, I can't help but feel like he took a little bit of the city with him.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Breaking the Fourth wall?!
Here's a pretty cool article I read from the Sunday New York Times
This whole 3-dimensional thing kind of weirds me out, to be honest. I mean, I can deal with the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" 3D show at Disneyland, but in my movie theatre? I can't help but think the technology, while fun, detracts from a story instead of enhancing it. As a moviegoer, while watching any sort of 3D show (like the "Terminator" show at Universal Studios, Hollywood), I'm so preoccupied with trying to predict the next thing that's going to pop out at me that I'm distracted from the story altogether.
That said, the article does address the pitfalls of working with such an easily-abused technology on film. I like the part where Selick, Coraline's creator, says he wanted to make it 3D "to be a part of our story, another world that seems richer, where you can breathe."
Most of this filmmaking stuff goes way over my head, especially when you're purposely trying to make something as fantastical as animation to look more real than, well, reality.
I'm interested in seeing the film, though. Who knows what it could mean for animated film in the future. Before you know it, we could be watching Saturday morning cartoons with 3D glasses.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Happy Birthday, Blog
I don't know how blogs are supposed to begin...I created this little guy a few days ago and I've been overthinking how exactly his birth should go. I was worrying about it again this morning when I thought, to hell with it, I might as well just write what I'm thinking. So, allow me to tell you a few things about myself.
1. I am not a film major, or even really knowledgeable in filmmaking, for that matter. But...
2. I love movies. And...
3. I want to learn more about them--how they're made, marketed, distributed, etc. So...
4. Consider this a sort of group exploration of film. A field trip!
Welcome to Cameo!
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