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PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 10.30.13 (HALLOWEEN EDITION)

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[ Note: I couldn't get the Monday Morning Mixer out on time because of some issues with my mom's health that I had to attend to.  We're still working on it, and even though she's strong (God bless her), it's taking its toll. ]   Nevertheless, here's the midweek edition, Halloween style. To start with, October 30 marks the day for two morbidly tragic true Hollywood tales; the suicide of Max Linder and the murder of Ramon Navarro . October 30, 1925 The story of silent comedian Max Linder, who committed suicide this week in 1925, is a truly tragic one. Beginning his career in 1905, Frenchman Linder was the first great screen funnyman, writing, directing and starring in hundreds of shorts, in which he played the instantly recognizable Max, the dapper Frenchman with the cane, top hat and moustache. He was a huge influence on emerging stars like Charlie Chaplin, who called himself a “student” of Linder and was greatly influenced by his

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 10.23.13

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October 23, 1992 Twenty-one years ago, on October 23, a small independent drama, Reservoir Dogs , was released, launching not only the career of its writer/director Quentin Tarantino but also about a decade’s worth of irony-infused, hip-seeming and violent crime pictures. Looking back, however, and despite the many copycats that came since, Tarantino’s work is still appealing cinephilic and, despite its own many influences, uniquely voiced and original. The story of a group of beaten, bloody gangsters holed up in a warehouse with an undercover cop in their midst, Reservoir Dogs borrows from the favorite films of its director, who undoubtedly watched them many times during his stint as an L.A. video store clerk, but it does so with true affection. The film’s storyline owes something to Ringo Lam’s Hong Kong pic City on Fire , the hipster attitude and carefree mingling of crime drama with pop ephemera –– Tarantino’s gangsters debating Madonna, for ex

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Monday Morning Mixer - 10.21.13

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October 21, 1984 - François Truffaut dies One of the central figures of the French New Wave, François Truffaut, died October 21, 1984. Born in Paris in 1932, living an itinerant childhood with his single (later remarried) mother and several relatives, Truffaut became a child of the cinema early in life. He would steal away from school and sneak into matinees — childhood experiences that would form the basis for his first feature, The 400 Blows . He won the Cannes Best Director Award in 1959 for the picture, in which the 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud played his alter ego, Antoine Doinel, enacted the tale of a neglected child poised between a life of petty crime and something greater. Before The 400 Blows , Truffaut had made several shorts but was mostly known as a tough-minded film critic at Cahiers du cinéma who often savaged conventional French cinema and endorsed instead the journeyman Hollywood directors celebrated by “auteur theory,” the critical school he helped found. Thr

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 10.16.13

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Edison's Black Maria, the world's first film production studio October 16, 1894 On Wednesday 16 October 1894, rodeo star Lee Martin from Buffalo Bill ’s Wild West Show rode a wild bronco for the cameras of W. K. Dickson . Performed in a makeshift rodeo just outside Thomas Edison’s “Black Maria,” the first movie production studio located in West Orange, New Jersey, the early cowboy spectacle was part of a cavalcade of entertainments –– from cock fights and boxers to jugglers and magicians –– that Dickson filmed. Buffalo Bill, who just happed to be performing in Brooklyn at the time, brought down a range of stars from his traveling show to perform, including Martin, and, then two weeks later, Annie Oakley gave a sharp-shooting demonstration. ~~ Focus Features ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WRITING: What are 18 exercises you can do right now to combat writer's block and fix your script? PRODUCING: What are the top 10 successful ho

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Monday Morning Mixer - 10.14.13

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1930 National Science Museum copy of 20 frames from the Roundhay Garden Scene  October 14 The world's oldest surviving film was shot today in 1888 ; the year Jack the Ripper went on a killing spree, Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear, Susan B. Anthony organized a Congress for Women's Rights and director F.W. Murnau, playwright Eugene O'Neill and poet T.S. Eliot were born. And on this day 125 years ago, Louis Le Prince filmed the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene .  It was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds. Was it meant to be a scene for a documentary, a fictional film or reality TV?  What do you think? If you're into movie firsts and vintage film like this then check out this YouTube channel: Change Before Going Productions. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ And now with a little history under our belt, let us proceed with the questions that will make us better filmmakers...  (FYI: There is a heavy New York

PRODUCTION TIPS: 5 Areas to Prepare BEFORE You Go to the American Film Market

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A major event for filmmakers around the world is less than a month away... The American Film Market.  "The American Film Market (AFM) is a film industry event, produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the trade association representing the world's producers and distributors of independent motion pictures and television programs. It is held each year at the beginning of November in Santa Monica, California. About 8,000 people attend the eight day event to network and to sell, finance and acquire films. Participants come from more than 70 countries and include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, etc. Founded in 1981, the AFM quickly became one of the premier global marketplaces for the film business, where unlike a film festival, production and distribution deals are the main focus of the participants." ( Wikipedia

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 10.9.13

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Oct. 9, 1964 - Guillermo Del Toro born. Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies, today celebrates his 49th birthday. Del Toro is, in some senses, the ultimate fanboy filmmaker, a lifelong lover of movies and comic books who moved from aficionado to auteur, bringing an uncommon artistry, intelligence and sophistication to the horror and fantasy film genres. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro was first drawn to horror movies – from the more cheap and cheesy 50s monster flicks and Hammer Horror movies to James Whale, Mario Bava and George A. Romero films – when he still extremely young. However, as he tells it, horror was all around him anyway. In interviews, he’s talked about seeing monsters in his bedroom as a toddler, and then being haunted by the ghost of his uncle – ironically, the man who had first introduced him to horror movies and novels. He began to draw his own monsters, and the fantastical w