This post isn't specifically about making movies, but it's about something that may affect people who make movies, and artists in general: depression. As winter approaches, Churchill's "black dog" can creep in, sometimes with such stealth that you don't notice until it's at your throat. So, from someone who has battled the dog with some success over the years...
A Recipe Against Depression
1. Life is too short to be miserable; do something about it now.
2. Even when you don't make a choice, you are making a choice. Own it.
3. Decide on your goals; divide them into baby steps.
4. Learn to express your desires directly.
5. Learn to express your anger directly.
6. Get at least 10 minutes of direct sunlight a day.
7. Get exercise: 30 minutes of elevated heart rate per day, at a minimum.
8. Eat well, and in moderation.
9. Coffee is your friend. So is wine. In moderation.
10. Antidepressants can help, but only temporarily.
11. Use antianxietals (such as Klonazapam) sparingly, but use them.
12. See a good therapist weekly, and dig deep.
13. Hell is other people. So is heaven.
14. You can't predict the future: don't indulge in pessimism.
15. You can't assess yourself objectively: don't bother with self-hatred.
- PH
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Limited preview - Rachel Bites, episode 1
For our blog readers, a (revised) preview of the first episode of web series "Rachel Bites."
The password is "pancake".
This video will only be online for a few days.
Please watch and comment!
http://vimeo.com/6293421
The password is "pancake".
This video will only be online for a few days.
Please watch and comment!
http://vimeo.com/6293421
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Beauty and the Beast: Part 1, the Beast
For those of you who enjoy a good - "Oh my god, those poor souls! What terrible misfortune has befallen them!" - read on.
This is a list of woes which fell on us during our recent four-day shoot for Rachel Bites, our upcoming web series:
The battery to our minivan died twice - once while we were shooting the opening scene of the show outside in Tribeca, and once when we were about to return all the equipment and had an extremely small window to do the returns and get back in time to make it to our day jobs.
The sound gear we borrowed from an unnamed source (not a friend, not an enemy, not a person) was uniformly crappy. The mixer looked like it had been kicked in right at one of the input channels. The mic cable connecting the boom to the mixer had a short(?) and had to be fiddled with constantly to remove the hum. Two of the three wireless mics had bad cables so we could only mic one actor at a time. When I asked for a replacement mixer I got a field recording deck instead (more on this in Part 2).
I got a $115 ticket for pulling the car up ont the sidewalk to unload lunch at the lovely park in our neighborhood where we were shooting. I got too engrossed in directing the actors (Christina and Paulo as Allison and Jon, see pic) in a heavy make-out scene and forgot to ask one of our interns to stand right next to the car so we wouldn't get a ticket.
And finally, the worst technical disaster I've ever had on a shoot.
It was late-afternoon on day two of the shoot. Pete, my directing partner and also our DP, was lighting the next scene. Our beautiful, 17-inch Panasonic HD monitor was plugged into a quad box, which we'd borrowed from the same non-person that we got the sound gear from. The monitor was plugged into the HVX 200 camera, belonging to our extremely good friend Dan Roentsch, who was on set doing the media management.
Pete moved the quad box a few inches so he could adust the placement of the camera. The quad box sent a shower a sparks into the air. The monitor went dead and couldn't be revived. After I had a small, controlled panic attack in the bathroom (and took a benzodiazapine to calm myself) we finally realized that we could plug in to our TV to at least get a look at our frame and lighting.
As we resumed our sound mixer, Josh, realized that he was only getting one channel out of the camera, and that one channel sounded like a geiger counter that's found uranium. When we played back the take on the computer we discovered that indeed both sound inputs had been ruined by the sparking quad box. Not only had we lost our precious monitor but we had ruined Dan's camera in the process. And the camera wasn't even plugged directly into the quad box!!!! The proximity of the component cable out, which takes the picture to the monitor, and the sound input to the camera, apparently caused the sound channels to fry.
Was the shoot over? Was Rachel Bites to be trampled on the vine?
Stay tuned to find out...
- LF
This is a list of woes which fell on us during our recent four-day shoot for Rachel Bites, our upcoming web series:
The battery to our minivan died twice - once while we were shooting the opening scene of the show outside in Tribeca, and once when we were about to return all the equipment and had an extremely small window to do the returns and get back in time to make it to our day jobs.
The sound gear we borrowed from an unnamed source (not a friend, not an enemy, not a person) was uniformly crappy. The mixer looked like it had been kicked in right at one of the input channels. The mic cable connecting the boom to the mixer had a short(?) and had to be fiddled with constantly to remove the hum. Two of the three wireless mics had bad cables so we could only mic one actor at a time. When I asked for a replacement mixer I got a field recording deck instead (more on this in Part 2).
I got a $115 ticket for pulling the car up ont the sidewalk to unload lunch at the lovely park in our neighborhood where we were shooting. I got too engrossed in directing the actors (Christina and Paulo as Allison and Jon, see pic) in a heavy make-out scene and forgot to ask one of our interns to stand right next to the car so we wouldn't get a ticket.
And finally, the worst technical disaster I've ever had on a shoot.
It was late-afternoon on day two of the shoot. Pete, my directing partner and also our DP, was lighting the next scene. Our beautiful, 17-inch Panasonic HD monitor was plugged into a quad box, which we'd borrowed from the same non-person that we got the sound gear from. The monitor was plugged into the HVX 200 camera, belonging to our extremely good friend Dan Roentsch, who was on set doing the media management.
Pete moved the quad box a few inches so he could adust the placement of the camera. The quad box sent a shower a sparks into the air. The monitor went dead and couldn't be revived. After I had a small, controlled panic attack in the bathroom (and took a benzodiazapine to calm myself) we finally realized that we could plug in to our TV to at least get a look at our frame and lighting.
As we resumed our sound mixer, Josh, realized that he was only getting one channel out of the camera, and that one channel sounded like a geiger counter that's found uranium. When we played back the take on the computer we discovered that indeed both sound inputs had been ruined by the sparking quad box. Not only had we lost our precious monitor but we had ruined Dan's camera in the process. And the camera wasn't even plugged directly into the quad box!!!! The proximity of the component cable out, which takes the picture to the monitor, and the sound input to the camera, apparently caused the sound channels to fry.
Was the shoot over? Was Rachel Bites to be trampled on the vine?
Stay tuned to find out...
- LF
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Hater v. Tater
Troubled by the intense envy aroused among friends and strangers by your new "Rachel Bites" t-shirt?
Then perhaps it's time to expand your wardrobe to include the latest in RB/Gear:
This brand new t-shirt is just a click away from in-your-mailbox and on-your-body...
http://www.cafepress.com/RachelBites
Then perhaps it's time to expand your wardrobe to include the latest in RB/Gear:
This brand new t-shirt is just a click away from in-your-mailbox and on-your-body... http://www.cafepress.com/RachelBites
Monday, June 8, 2009
"Rachel Bites" Merchandise
Right now, and while supplies last, you can buy t-shirts relating to a web series that DOES NOT EXIST!
Imagine the confusion on the faces of friends and foes alike when they ask "What the hell is that?" and you reply, coolly, "That's for a web series that doesn't exist."
Confusion will fast turn to envy when they realize you've gotten in on the ground floor, before the damn thing's even been shot!
If, after purchasing one of these shirts, your reputation doesn't appreciate in value by at least 200%, there's definitely something wrong with you.
http://www.cafepress.com/RachelBites
Imagine the confusion on the faces of friends and foes alike when they ask "What the hell is that?" and you reply, coolly, "That's for a web series that doesn't exist."
Confusion will fast turn to envy when they realize you've gotten in on the ground floor, before the damn thing's even been shot!
If, after purchasing one of these shirts, your reputation doesn't appreciate in value by at least 200%, there's definitely something wrong with you.
http://www.cafepress.com/RachelBites
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Rachel Bites Storyboard
So we're in pre-production now on the first four episodes of web series Rachel Bites (about a young woman going to film school in NYC) which we'll shoot over 2 or 3 days at the end of this month. I've been doing storyboards as a way of thinking about what it will look like, and how it will be constructed in the editing. That's a page of storyboards above, which you can see in a larger form by clicking on it. The drawing is feeble, but no worse, certainly, than Scorsese's for Taxi Driver.
The scene numbers are to the left, and it looks like there must be at least 16 scenes in this episode, but in fact we're numbering all of the scenes in these four episodes consecutively, because we'll shoot all four episodes during the same production period. That means that if we see Rachel on the same city street in episodes 1 and 3, we'll shoot those scenes on the same day to "shoot out" that location.
- PH
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