Dept. of Whips and Scorns
Every now and then, it helps to let off steam.
So, despite CCTV footage recording the before and after of my “mugging,” and one offender having already been identified, nothing has actually happened to make me feel safer in my own neighbourhood, which is depressing and anxiety-provoking, and leads to a low-level rage brewing. So that’s no fun. On the other hand, things have been quiet since the combustions of Guy Fawkes Night, when Leith festivities typically reached WICKER MAN proportions.
Meanwhile, in a more amusing incident, I was complimented on my filmmaking by one of our MA students — “CRY FOR BOBO is so good!” she enthused, which is what I like to hear. She then rather spoiled it by adding, “Why did you stop?”
I tried to explain that, from my perspective, I hadn’t actually stopped making films, but in reality it’s been YEARS, so maybe I have. Time to do something about that, possibly.
But it didn’t help that I learned this week from an esteemed producer friend, with whom Fiona and I are collaborating on a project, that he’d had no luck raising interest in the project with me as director, and so henceforth I would have to be co-writer only while he sought a more experienced/hot name to helm the thing.
On the plus side, he has gotten us a bunch of development money, some of which will be coming our way soon, which is nice, and a screenwriting credit on a feature film that actually gets made would be extremely helpful in achieving my increasingly-longterm goal to direct a feature film before senility sets in.
Time to start seriously thinking about genuine no-budget digital filmmaking, I think.
US buyers: North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]
UK buyers: North By Northwest [Blu-ray] [1959]
shadowplay 
November 10, 2009 at 10:40 am
Digital seems to be the way the wind is blowing. Any chance you can do the one-for-them, one-for-you thing or the John Sayles method of funding movies through pay for script doctors.
November 10, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I know how you feel. Time just flies by. I’m reading Lloyd Kaufman’s book, Produce Your Own Damn Movie, now. It’s a worthwhile read and it’s fun, if you’re thinking about making a film yourself.
November 10, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Yes, Kaufman is weirdly inspirational, although I don’t really like anything he’s made. But his philosophy translates into the bricollage approach of people like Raoul Ruiz or even Godard, people who can make a movie with “a matchbox and an elastic band.”
If people were lining up to pay me to script doctor or do work-for-hire that would indeed be a way to pay for more personal work. But sadly you spend so much time chasing work-for-hire you never do anything of your own — unless you’re like Sayles and have a strong reputation already.
November 10, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Charlei Kaufman is even MORE inspirational.
November 10, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Like I urged a couple of weeks ago, please seek professional counsel. It may help. Worth a “go” at least. We Americans love it. Those of us who don’t want to go to our local guns ‘n ammo store for solace, that is.
And revel in North by Northwest’s bravura film-making, wit and romance, as well, for therapy.
November 10, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Not even knowing who Lloyd Kaufman is, I’m guessing his book is more useful than any of Raoul Ruiz’s books, wonderful though they are. His “Poetics of Cinema” is a weird case where I’m anxiously awaiting volume 3 even though I didn’t understand anything in volumes 1 or 2.
Filmmaking career plan: hold back, watch as many films as a man can watch, then come outta nowhere and make a masterpiece in my 70’s.
November 10, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I dunno about therapy. I’d rather be Hawksian and just KEEP IT IN.
Kaufman is like Ruiz without the talent, but his book in a way is a useful guide to how to be Ruizian — “You want to make Gladiator but you haven’t any money? Get some animal crackers and some toy soldiers…”
Ruiz is good at offering alternatives to the “central conflict” model of drama, although I think his films are essentially fascinating rather than actually “dramatic” per se. But fascinating is good!
November 10, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I guess I’ve been lucky. My neighborhood is now infested with medical students from all over the country, so it’s not particularly dangerous anymore – except directly across the street, of course. That absentee landlord will rent to anyone with money no matter how they get it, which meant that I ended up with a bunch of thieves and drug dealers (I saw a deal go down right in front of my house, photographed it with my telephoto), until the cops finally hassled them (you should’ve seen ’em scatter when a police car would show lights) and the landlord so often that he considered them too much trouble and evicted them. Right now, no criminals live there, but it’ll happen again, it always does. A pair of hookers lived there some years ago. Back then, it was amusing to see guys I was acquainted with (ahem) come and go. The man two doors down from this house was a pot farmer who blew his brains out a couple of years back. He would stalk the neighborhood, obviously mentally ill and was creepily fixated on my brother, which kept him from visiting often.
November 10, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Kaufman’s movies are their own thing. Class of Nuke Em High. Toxic Avenger. I actually have an autographed copy of one of this films that he gave me in the back of a taxi in Amsterdam. He’s a very charming, nice guy and he has a lot to say about the actual process of making films, as opposed to the art of them. I’m surprised that more people don’t point out some of the stuff he talks about, and he’s passionate and inspiring. It’s almost like a self-help book (which he talks about) where he’s trying to show you that all those society-induced reasons why you never get off your ass and make a film are just excuses.
I’ve never read Ruiz’ books but I’m guessing that they’re more about the art of a film as his films are of the serious art cinema kind. Most of his movies cost a lot less than Kaufman’s. It doesn’t make it any less useful, though! I’m always mulling over Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky’s book, which I read years ago, and wonder why, if he wrote that thirty or forty years ago, that most directors can’t move beyond expressionism.
November 10, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Charlie Kaufman is like Ruiz WITH the talent.
November 10, 2009 at 11:33 pm
November 11, 2009 at 12:19 am
I only liked about half of Adaptation, didn’t like Human Nature, mostly liked Being JM and Unbearable Sunshine… ridiculously, have still to see this one.
I can’t work out with Lloyd Kaufman how he can be such an appealing character and yet make films that have such a genuinely unpleasant edge, at times. Bloodsucking Freaks?
November 11, 2009 at 12:36 am
I was on the fence with Charlie Kaufman until Schenecyny, NY (sp?). I really liked that one. It’s so dark, all the way through.
With Lloyd Kaufman, he’s a crazy guy who makes crazy movies. Actually, Bloodsucking freaks is the movie I have signed.
Actually, the Lloyd Kaufman book starts with him going to a festival in Portugal where he was invited for a lifetime achievement award. He flew over there, made a nice speech and then Being John Malkovich started up on the screen. The book is full of little humiliations that the poor guy has to suffer.
November 11, 2009 at 1:02 am
That’s wonderful. L Kaufman wrote a brilliant Cannes survival guide which anybody contemplating going to that exhausting festival should read.