Finally the writers’ strike has ended and I’m back at work. Largely scraping by on unemployment, I hibernated through the rough NYC winter chill in my apartment, working on my great American screenplay and wasting a lot of time in Second Life, where all my slacking has earned me the reputation of the top simboarder extrodinaire (the simboard is sort of a hoverboard/ skateboard/ snowboard thing that’s a lot of fun to play around on). I’ll just add that to my list of great achievements in geekdom...
My return to the working world began a few weeks ago with a couple of days on the new Disney movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic", starring Isla Fischer ( AKA Mrs. Sasha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) and that crazy redhead from "Wedding Crashers"). It’s a big $90 million movie that’s based on the book of the same name. It was an ok shoot, and I got to see and learn some stuff from the ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) guys. I had already see the shiny/matte ball and motion tracking marks and bands before on other shoots, but I learned of a new little thing they use to figure out the focal length of their DV reference camera, affectionately called the "Cubecicle".
Now, I’m working on a new reality show that I can’t really say too much about, given the confidentiality agreement I signed, but I’ll tell you that it has to do with fashion and it’s not Top Model, although it does have a lot of the same producers. I started as a talent wrangler, helping with contestant sequestering, and now I’m on normal PA duty.
That’s all that’s happening with me right now, but I’m starting to get antsy about the "big move" back down south to Birmingham that’ll be happening at the beginning of July. Helen and I are moving back home to be close to family, and start a family, and I’m still wondering what exactly I’ll be doing down there. I’m starting to find some old contacts that work with production companies and the film festival down there, but I imagine I’ll have to find a regular jobby job too. I’m guessing that the freelance community isn’t strong enough to do the same kind of thing I’m doing up here, but I’m hoping to shake things up and make some work for myself somehow.
My dream is to make movies (and maybe some TV) that are all set and Shot in Alabama. I started a little manifesto during my free time that I may post up here called "An Open Letter to Hollywood and New York Filmmakers" that details my complaints with the industry and how the south is represented and used in films and TV, but the gist of it is that while they say you can substitute and fake any place for another, those of us that live there know that it’s been shot in Georgia or South Carolina with actors that sound like they learned their fake accents from Foghorn Leghorn and that they don’t really know, understand, or care what we’re all about. I want to represent my people and culture accurately and show that, for all our faults, we have something to contribute and a unique worldview that deserves to be heard. For too long we have let a small group of people represent the whole of America, and I think it’s about time that more voices were heard. They say "write what you know" and the south is what I know. I could try and pen some New York story based on my experiences here, but I know it would just be a rehash of the old ’stranger in a strange land’ premise of all the different cultures and people here, or else a movie about making movies...and I simply despise any time an art form devolves to the point of making art about itself and loses touch with actual people in the real world. I just hope and pray I find enough like-minded people down there to make it happen. I do know that a lot of the artsy types I went to school with are wasting their talents in menial labor, so hopefully I can recruit some of them, but I really have no idea about crew possibilities.
Well, that’s all I got for now. Wish me luck. I’ll write some more when I got some more news...
