When I
was 14 years old, I finally quit piano
lessons. After a wretched year or so being
taught by a teacher who completely ignored
the fact that I had been playing for 10
years, I finally begged my mother enough to
quit. Using the excuse of high school
commitments coming up seemed to do the trick.
The day I had my last lesson, I went home and
promptly wrote 5 songs. By the end of the
school year I had written and recorded
(into a tape player) over 20 songs and ideas.
I had this new found freedom and direction
that was just oozing out of me. Piano became
fun again. It became a creative tool, and it
became inspiring.
What I just finished
in the last 24 hours, is on par with that prolific period
a dozen years ago. I'm just so damn happy with this I
can't even tell you. So please, take the time to
download
this clip now
before moving onto the rest of the entry. It is indeed
big for this site. Trust me, it's worth it. Even on
dial-up.
Giddy up. I know,
you all wanted me to piss off the rock at the end or
some shit. LOL. I do have an alternate ending
that is sans clothing, but there was just no need to
ruin a perfect little short. So what the hell is it?
All the for just a trailer for the next show? Well
actually in a sense, yeah. That will be used within
the next show, but I'll have to start from scratch
because I want each TV screen to go from
angle to angle. Really complex little opening. I think
what I'm happiest about was how it was put
together.
That little
mountain is a place called Stoney Point here in LA.
It's about 15 minutes from me. That final shot is
looking off in the direction of where I live.
Anyway, Gary took me there about a year ago, and Jess
and I go there from time to time. Nice workout -
gorgeous view. I always wanted to take some video
up there so when I woke up Monday, that's just
what I did. I was feeling all rejuvinated after
the last entry and decided I was going to somehow make
something for "The Journey" show this fall. On my way
there I figured shots of a guy climbing a mountain
would be cool. And that was about it.
So I found
some angles, and unfortunately had to set everything
up by myself a good 200 feet away from me. I was a bit
unnerved because anyone could've just taken the
camera. I was on the side of a cliff and a good 2
minutes from it. But luckily everything went well. I
basically did the climb from about 7 different angles.
So yes, that means I'd set it up, hit record, climb
down the cliff, then back up it - over and over. I
made sure to pay no attention to how it would be
edited. I just wanted to get the shots. I didn't want
to think too much about it. I just wanted really nice
framing and a sense of depth. I chose black and white
'cause I love it for one, and it looks so filmlike
with my cameras slow shutter feature - it's just
stunning. Color makes it look really
cheap.
The final shot was
actually a different part of the mountain then a
viewer would assume (god love ediitng) - and I had no
idea what I was gonna do with it. The shot was there,
so I took it. I then sat there at the end wondering
what would be a clever shot, and felt taking all my
clothes off just had to be done.
Some 9
year old boy was devastated with an onslaught of
self-esteem issues because of me.
Heh.
So I took it all
home, and loaded it in - with still no idea what it
was. I pieced together a rough edit of the whole
thing, and loved the challenge of how raw it was. I,
as the editor, had to find the story. I had to
watch what angles pieced together right, and let the
story come out. The pensiveness at the beginning,
looking back, then trying again - was obviously not
scripted...it was just determined by the edits.
There's such an art to editing that never gets
appreciated. So anyway, I watched it a bit, decided
I'd add some music and a voice over in the morning -
and I'd have something. It was obviously a symbol of
"The Journey", and would play a part
somewhere.
On rewatching the
footage in the morning however, it struck me that I
had a great opportunity to pull off one of my favorite
effects. I could use words on-screen instead of a
voice-over. Something done very well in the 12 Ghosts,
and Panic Room credits. Words that are hanging WITHIN
the shot. Not on top, but right there. Now I obviously
didn't have the time to truly light each letter and
give it the weight necessary to look photorealistic,
but I could make it look like part of the scene
relatively quickly. A simple matter of spcaing, depth,
and opacity (and of course that one off-angle
shot...THAT was a bitch), and it looks like I'm
climbing around words. The beauty of this was that it
was only possible because I was limited to only myself
for a cameraman. So I had to use all set shots. Which
is truly a boring way to shoot, but now I had no
problem laying in the words because they didn't have
to track with a camera pan. It looks completely
intentional that there aren't any zooms.
And that's the
magic of creating that I REALLLLLLLY love. Having
challenges, and making negatives a positive. Only
tripod shots? Let's use an effect that you COULDN'T DO
(easily anyway) if there were camera pans. Then,
nobody's the wiser. It's really what's lacking in big
budget movies. The whole "solving problems" aspect
gets highly diminished when you have so much money to
throw around. Yet when you have to struggle and rig it
up yourself, some of the best work comes out. Man, you
can't have both though... I guess you just hope
you'll hold onto that attitude if you ever make
money.
Oh and did you
recognize the music? Fool on the Hill by The Beatles.
I always knew buying that classical Beatles album
would come in handy someday. It really fits well.
Classical interpretations of pop music always impress
me. The Nirvana song in Moulin Rouge was such a nice
justification for Cobain's writing skill. Good music,
is good music no matter what the style...
So I'm pretty
certain, that that will be the start of the show,
going right into some Brian Setzer music and through
The Journey that has been 4tvs. I'm so goddamn excited
at the prospect of this show I can't even tell you. To
be able to write those words after the 6 months I've
had, is so relieving. I've officially made it past the
hell that was February/March. Here's to praying it
becomes a scary part of a show, and never a part of my
life again...
Anyway, I hope you
enjoyed the short. Hopefully you can relate it to your
life somehow.
