Moviemaking and lemonade stands are a lot alike.

Who had a lemonade stand as a kid? OK, who knows the concept of a kid selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup?

Filmmaking isn’t that different from lemonade making. To make lemonade you don’t just say, “I’m going to make lemonade and sell it in the front of my lawn.” and POOF!it happens. To be in the movies you don’t just say, “I’m going to be a Director/Actor/Producer.” and it happens. Though that would be nice, right? “I want to be a filmmaker!”. POOF! “Get me Stallone and Rachel McAdams for my next picture!”

A lemonade stand takes effort, supplies, planning, specific tools, products and services to get that little paper cup full. Little Suzie Q’s mind doesn’t wrap around the fact that the cups have to be bought by the Executive Producer(Dad) and you’ll be lucky to get the cheap paper cups nevermind the red party cups. The lemons have to be picked from the tree or bought at the grocery store(by Mom the Producer), and it takes a while to build a stand(by you the Set Construction). The sign has to be made that says you are selling quality lemonade(again, you as the Art Director).

Now if you’re lucky and Mom the Producer calls all her friends to come buy a cup you’ll be doing good. But if you and her just hope for the best you might not make it. You might get lucky and a random stranger comes by kinda thirsty. Your selling skills on how good this lemonade is will be paramount. You are giving information to the potential customer about your service and how it will benefit them in the long run. Do you see? The customer can be both the ACTOR and MOVIE WATCHER. You are the DIRECTOR.

What’s the point here besides how great lemonade is? Use the tools as a filmmaker to make a great movie.

Actors: Your tools of trade are you mind and body. Hit the gym or go the park and workout regularly. Get your body do as you command. Read as much as you can, and no Entertainment Weekly doesn’t count. Take classes. Practice your craft. Work in as many movies as you can, whether paid or not. I regularly visit sets and on occasion will find an actor that I can see working with at a later date. If you’re not on set, how will someone know how good you are and approach you?

Crew: Be on movie sets. It doesn’t matter what you are there doing, just be there. Practice makes perfect. In one week, I went from Directing a commercial to Assistant Directing a short film to PAing a TV pilot and finished off the week by being a Camera Operator.

Writers: What did I do with my free time away from being on set? I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. Every feature film I have written shows improvement. Each one is better and better. I sell my writing here and there, and I feel lucky about it. Here is how I feel about luck. Being lucky is the culmination of hard work, treating people well & staying positive during times of insecurity. So work a lot, be nice, and good things will come.

Back to lemonade and moviemaking. Lemonade selling is a business. Movies are a self-selling business. Think about sales. Sales works for selling products from internet to wireless phones to gym memberships and if you can sell that, sell the idea and your self-worth to people.

It can be pretty sweet to be in this business. Sugar is what makes lemonade sweet but it only brings out the natural lemon taste. Too little sugar and lemonade becomes sour. Too much sugar and it spoils the lemonade. With just the right amount of sugar, magic can happen. Movie magic.

Go out and make the best movies (and lemonade) that you can!

Short Films are the now.

Short films have never had much clout in the entertainment industry. Sure, they can get attention, but to actually make money off it? Forget it.

Until now.

With Youtube and social media rising and people’s attention getting shorter, a movie for a quarter-dollar that runs less than 10 minutes doesn’t have too bad of a chance. You want a dollar? Forget it. I’ll just go on Youtube and watch free stuff. In a world that is completely international thanks to information, it’s all about quantity in streaming Video on Demand.

The best choice to me is Netflix or Amazon Video grabbing short comedies or thrillers and using them on their service as original content that is exclusive.

Think of being in the mood to waste some time in front of the television or internet video. Click on Netflix drop down and choose “Comedy Shorts”. Five short ten minute comedies play one after another or until you’ve had enough.

That is what will work.

TV AND MOVIES FOR PORTABLE DEVICES

I used to agree with Quentin Tarantino about his view that once movies were no longer seen in the theater that he would no longer want to make movies. Granted, he’s about twenty years older than me, and we like the same types of movies.


Sadly, the last few years I’ve realized that I’m OK with this change. People want to have a portable screen to view their content. Yes, they might have a fifty inch plasma television at home and go see the occasional movie at the theater, but they don’t want to be restricted.

I watch 90% of my movies thru Netflix now; about 5% of it on my Android phone. The other 10% is at the movie theater or video rental store. I have gone to a movie theater every month or two now, and I rent a movie from the video store if I am unable to find it on Netflix or streaming online.

I am not a supporter of Hulu because of their editing content and ads. I have the solution for them: One ad before the movie or show and one after. No inbetween. It ruins the flow of visual imagery.

So either make shorter film content or move the ad space somewhere else.

I hope Tarantino changes his mind about portable devices because I don’t want him to stop making movies. I know I won’t stop because a medium changes how it’s seen from how I originally planned for, but then again, I’m good at adapting.

Here’s hoping he is too.

The Princess Bride: Special Edition

The Special Edition starts out strong. Vivid colors, and the sound felt like it was movie theater surround sound quality. 15 minutes into it, out of nowhere, midgets started having sex with each other.

WTF! I DON'T REMEMBER THIS SCENE.

No thank you, I'll stick to the original version.

Thanks Ethan.

Reasons to love Big Trouble In Little China

• It's American as can be. Even if you're not American, you gotta admire the passion that Jack Burton carries about him and his fellow countrymen.
• It's cheesy as hell. There is not one real thing in the movie that truly could happen. Yet.
• It keeps it's Chinese roots. Even though the movie is American and set in China, us the viewer, really feel like ancient Chinamen run around present day Chinatown.
• Green eyes for Chinese girls are a rare miracle. But get this: There are always others.
• Any way possible to get in or out. Example: To get out of a den, use a fireman's pole.
• The entire movie's point is to stop a royal wedding.
• Jack Burton isn't the real hero. He's a sidekick.
• 2 unlikely best friends must save 2 hot ladies with green eyes.
• Magic potion is real. Very real.

Talking about death...on Halloween.

I believe Hollywood might be dying. It's almost time for its death.

Filmmaking in general has become tiresome. The stories that we all know and love are painfully similiar.

I'm not sure what happened and honestly don't care.

Thesis Film: Struggle, overcoming, celebration. Sequel: New struggle with different variants.

Where is humanity if we can't evolve past imitation of the source? Hollywood might be dying but we'll live. It'll just be boring as fuck.

And if you know anything about me yet.... I'm against that option. I'm against becoming a 3rd World Country and me the King. I'll be in the chaos and thrive cause I'll accept death when the rest of the world is at peace.

I'll be causing lots of trouble. Just to keep things interesting. Something Hollywood can't do anymore and has been a long time since they even tried. There is no Cialis for a broken dick, only numbing paint-by-numbers theoretical antagonists and tired jerking-off from a stretched thin idea of orgasmic art.

Sex and Death. On Halloween. At 1:11AM.

I've got plenty more wads to shoot here. :)

Indie movies. A new definition of them.

Hearing the term indie movies thrown at everything from Paranormal Activities to District 9, I’ve had enough. Hollywood figured out mass amounts of money can be made from smaller budget films since the early 60’s and it has gone far too long without changing terms about it. All I’ve done is sub-categorize the genre.
Short films - a shorter than 55 minute long practice movie, no matter the budget. Can be also called a testing ground movie.
B-movie - well meaning with budget or not, but falls short of the original vision. Except for anything Troma, which means to make what you see on purpose.
Zero indie - where everything is done on favors, no one gets paid, probably ever. With exception of craft services aka Domino’s Pizza.
Art house indie - semi-experienced filmmakers who stride from the established norm with some budget and occasionally a plot, generally somewhere in the 5 figure area. These movies play in art galleries or midnight matinees.
Indie - small budget with obvious creativity to make up for low production values
Backed indie - Near mainstream Producers find films that can be made for low budget but with name stars attached to a points system to make some profits. A good portion of these open at Sundance Film Festival.
Indie in spirit - My favorite. Some production cash is available but everyone strives to give their most on ambitiously lean but healthy production values.
Low budget - less than $10 million after rebates. This is not exactly indie but it is nice that some people can pay their rent working on it.
Medium budget - (not indie) $10-$50 million after rebates.
Big budget - (not indie)$50-$99 million after rebates.
Blockbuster budget (not indie) $99million+ after rebates.

Moviemaking Checklist

 0. Write script
 1. Create the budget
 2. Hire the crew
 3. Cast the film
 4. Choose locations
 5. Break down the shooting script
 6. Create the shooting schedule and production boards
 7. Secure locations
 8. Contract with vendors for stage rentals
 9. Negotiate key equipment deals with vendors
10. Constructe any needed sets
11. Acquire props
12. Choose, design, and manufacture wardrobe
13. Camera tests for any special effects or specialized development techniques
14. Makeup tests for actors
15. SHOOT THE DAMN THING!

Why filmmaking is the perfect job

Filmmaking is the greatest job in the world to me. It’s a business and art and I am the entrepreneur and the artist. I know there will be mistakes made along the way and I’m OK with that. I’m still going to do my best to keep pushing these results further.

Why do I get out of bed every morning and why should you care? I get out of bed every morning thinking that I have much to do and very little time to finish everything. My life becomes a series of adventures that I must pick and choose which ones are the most important. I wake up as Indiana Jones and I’m on a mission to go out and make some deals to not let the bad guys win.

What is in this for me personally though? I’d have to say inner peace. As a kid I’d always felt like I needed something and that it was missing from my life. I’d spend hours watching movies and listening to music with friends, instead of doing homework. I’d do the homework the morning of on the school bus. Making movies is the biggest sense of accomplishment out there for me as of now. It’s the perfect job for me. I get to sit at a desk or on the couch surfing the internet for a while and write out stories that come from ideas I get when reading news or seeing posts by other people or by watching a movie and I see a character I like and would want to see more of on screen. When I can’t sit down and write anymore, I go out and film anything that is in my personal blog or notebook of ideas. Then when I’m done filming I get to sit at the desk or couch again with laptop on and work on editing these ideas together, adding music scores and sound effects, cutting up scenes to make sense and rewriting the story again through editing. It’s a beautiful process and it really does put me in a zen state of mind.

What’s in it for you as the audience member? Communication in community. I’m building communities of people who love or hate my work and who love or hate me. Whether it’s the former or the latter, you the audience get that real emotion that others can relate to or disagree with, causing conversations to start with other people who have the same or differing opinions. Our ability to communicate through speech and language which uses our minds to comprehend and analyze data is part of that extraordinary process of building our lives together.

I believe in myself and I have to do it again and again. I have to keep going and pursue that destiny in storytelling. The oldest artform. The current state of affairs is great for movies. There’s a nice balance of films out there, from comic book movies to indie-dramas. And I want to present variations of them that are always old-fashioned but with something new.

Am I going to be able to work my dream job forever? Possibly. I do want to make movies and work with others that believe the same things I do. Working smart not hard, but also work hard. Work that extra hour, work that extra day. Change lives for the future to be better. All by having you getting to a movie theater or at home on your iPad for an hour or two. I’m not doing this for the money. Nor the recognition, and definitely not for celebrity, though I’m certain that will come. I do this because I love my life. I've lived a great life so far. I have a way with people that is understanding and can get a smile. It's a lost art. Filmmaking I’ve had to learn through trial and error. The way I can connect with people is a skill I was born with. I want to teach and lead people who want to be the same type of leader. Not because I’m a great leader. There’s better than me wherever I go. It’s because I’m true to myself, to my art, my family, friends, and to my audience. I don’t go about making spectators, I make people a part of a community. My community, your community, our communities. You reading this right here, right now, are in that community.

Things didn’t always go as I’d assumed. I never thought I’d be working in the movies. The thought never crossed my mind. I remember seeing Home Alone, Fievel Goes West, and Robocop, and Rocky as a kid, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life growing up. I had dreams of being in a rock’n’roll band as a teenager but I think that was more to meet girls. It worked back then, but that was me having more style than substance. I’ve had a decade of leveraging the two to a delicate balance. The reason movies have become such a huge impact on my life is that I can tell stories and people will be captivated to see what happens next. There are countless stories being told out there right now and I believe my stories are different. I’m different. My upbringing was different. I want others to see what I see, to know what I know, to feel what I feel, and to act on their ideas as well.

Living in Los Angeles makes a filmmaker jaded from seeing what really is successful. Too many people around you are doing the same thing and getting multiple awards for their work, but still they struggle, whether financially or artistically. That struggle is part of us and puts us in one world. I think we can come together in our daily struggles. I want to lead people to being true to themselves and to their community and their world. Sure, I want to make a splashy Hollywood blockbuster here and there. I’m only human. But I also want to tell the story of people that are human. Possibly the story of a cyborg with artificial intelligence too.

I end this journal with the casual quote which moves me forward. It’s simple yet means so much and also can easily be observed and analyzed deeply. It’s the words that I seek from others as a colleague and as a friend. It’s the people I like to be with that say this to themselves and aloud, and it brings out ways to do things that others say are impossible:

“Why not?”


Filmmaking is the perfect job for me because I am expected to make mistakes. Not only that, but I get to learn from my mistakes.

In my journey learning my craft, I have come to understand what people love, what people hate, and what people are willing to take as acceptable. This also explains the Studio's approach to filmmaking also.

So at this point I can either start making acceptable art that is at every movie theater or I can push the limits and possibly be hated. The opposite of that though is that it will change the entire industry, be imitated like no other and bring about international recognition. Doing either of those will not make me feel happy as an artist. I am choosing to make experimental film that will possibly have mainstream success. I am not looking for fame. I am looking to touch the top of the universe by a mistake.

Nothing goes your way so deal with it.

You know when you have something in mind when you try to make something artistic but it doesn't turn out at all like you want? That is the stress of being a film director. I write and I direct. Actors are great, they are there and do what is needed. But every other aspect of production falters.

I ended up being the last person to show up on set because of a snafu that happened mid-morning. The lady who is sponsoring the film didn't show up on time to get my order in. We needed sandwiches for the set and I submitted a proposal to her with a copy of the script, and storyboards. She was delighted to be a part of something and we agreed to meet at 11 AM. I wake up at the crack of dawn and get ready and am super prepared for the day ahead. I go there expecting her to be starting on it, but she is nowhere in sight. I ask and the guy at the front says that she should be in any minute. So I told him what was going on and if he could start the order for me. She shows up at 11:30. But to make it up she gave us a few bags of chips for our lunch to go with the sandwiches she donated for the cast and crew.  Saying that, I didn't leave to go to the set until noon. I was hoping to finish by 12:30 and then we could eat lunch...Nothing happens how you want it I guess.

I get there and there is a dump truck in front of my first location. Fine, I can deal with that. So we made our way to the next location and everything turned out OK. It was just odd that this was my project and I'm late. I'm super thankful that everyone there was understanding and no one complained.

I checked out the daily and it looks good. I got a lot of work ahead of me to edit this it into something manageable. Luckily, I'm officially a sponsored filmmaker. Now I can show people this and get more sponsors and more funding now.

Movies were my father.

My father didn't spend a lot of time with me growing up. He was never there for football games or anything. We'd go camping every summer, but I don't think me and him ever connected. I remember he didn't show up to my sister's high school graduation. That killed her. It was the happiest day and the saddest day for her. I'm not sure why our father was not close to us. And so it became movies that I grew up with and taught me about life.

Because of them I know how to fight. I watched tons of movies like Rocky, any kung-fu flick, action movies that taught me to live dangerously. Of course I've grown up now and don't need that thrill as much but any fighting done as a schoolkid was self taught.

I also learned how to talk to girls, and how to dance. Movies have traditionally been Boy meets Girl. That is where I learned about girls. By watching them and trying to understand them. Am I close to knowing what I want to know? No. But I'm closer to understanding what it means to be close to someone and letting them into my life as well.

I think movies have taught me what I want to be when I become a father. I want to be the caring dad, the understanding dad. The dad that plays baseball with his son. The dad that is there in every pivotal point in his son or daughter's life.  I owe the movies and am grateful to have known them.
 
My father never taught me any of these things. Movies were my father growing up.

Books on acting and directing

I'm not interested in how to write to how to lead actors. I'm interested in lives of writers or directors or actors. That is much more interesting. I started out reading books on acting. Method acting, Stanislavski's teachings. I read one book by David Mamet that changed my views. True and False. The learning I got from that book told what acting is without another need to learn more: Acting is about the self and there is only so much to read about finding your own style.  I never read another book on acting theory again after that. I now read on the lives of actors more than their style.

I moved to reading books on  producing movies. That led me to read books on Producers like Lawrence Turman and Robert Evans. Reading those books taught me what I needed to know more than a book on producing movies. It taught me what goes on in the life of a Producer.

That lead me to read books on Directors and directing. I read every book I could possibly buy and borrow. I read books on Orson Welles, David Lean, David Lynch- my heroes. Epic moviemaking.
 
This explains a lot about my style. I'm go with the flow. I realize there are things I won't be able to change. The picture in my head is not the picture people will see. They will see 0.0001% of what I see. That is my art to try to get people to think for themselves and feel a movie. We all see movies. What the emotion that I am trying to show is far more valuable than visually entertaining stories with only small plot.

I don't try to think about what people will say or who will like it or who will not. Van Gogh barely survived making his art, and only some people felt his genius. So there is only that. Make good art. Forget what someone tells you to do things a certain way. You will learn for yourself and become a better artist for it.

Burbank is hated by Los Angeles like New Jersey is hated by New York

People hate when other people want to move to Burbank instead of Los Angeles. It reminds me of how much a New Yorker hates New Jersey. Which is why New Jersey people kick serious ass when they hear about it. Based on pop culture and any TV shows depicting people from New Jersey, would you pick a fight with them? HELL NO. At least not old school Jerseyan's. (Jerseyite's?)

Burbank is different though. It's not Los Angeles, but it is very close. I'm sure a lot of people situated in deep L.A. don't want to hear that, but from an outsider-now-insider I am confident about it. Burbank is suburban. It is not ghetto. It has cleaner air than Los Angeles (until you get to the coast).

So Jersey is hated because it is supposedly worse, but Burbank is hated because it is supposedly better. Go figure. I love both areas. It is nice to get away from Los Angeles every once in a while and only going 10 minutes north is a great escape. Check out Burbank if you can. Their downtown scene is lively and plenty to do.

Videe(s)

There is so much content out there that the internet is polluted with crap. Not just crap video but crap sites. Google does a pretty good job of shielding those pages from us. But every once in a while a crap site or video does show up. Look at Youtube(owned by Google), there are still tons of videos that seem good but when you get to them there are a ton of "thumbs down" and it is a misleading file name of what you are really looking for.

There's got to be a new name for this crap instead of, well, crap. I am proposing Videe. It is close to video but not quite as good.
Try it. See what happens. Maybe Hollywood will take notice and make an effort to get away from sites like Youtube with user generated content.

I just moved to Los Angeles, what now?

I had a lovely chat with a friend of a friend who is a budding movie Producer. After we had talked I got home and jotted down what she had said. This is the recap:

Live in LA for 10 years to make it big in the movie business.(note that another friend here said it's actually 15 years to become an overnight sensations!)

Its more about how you are presentable and being discovered is a big part of the reason why you want to be presentable. So look good, smell good, kiss everyone's ass you can, live in these areas: Los Feliz - Eagle Rock - Pasadena - Koreatown - Westwood- Culver City- Toluca Lake - Silverlake(I will lose 50 points to a girl if I live in the SF Valley.) (Second note: I said "fuck it" and am living in Studio City anyway.)

To start in the studio system, be a Production Assistant for 3+ years, then move to Camera/Direction Assistant.

Other words of advice she gave me:

Find a Jewish kid who's father runs CAA/ICM/Warner etc and become his best friend.(Also try winning the lottery!)

Find a producer/DP and stick to them like glue.(Good advice.)
Get an agent.(Good advice.)
Indie moviemaking  will get big but then you are inside looking in without knowing how the studios work.
Write the best script then force them to let me direct it.(best advice.)

Out of the hour long conversation we had, I realized the studios have some really horrible writers. So:
Writing is the most important part of the system. The only way for me to make it is to write.

Directing is a natural progression.

Production Assistant work

PA's are what i like to think of as firemen. You like to imagine firemen as running all over saving lives and rescuing people from a backdraft. And the same for a PA.

The reality is it's more like someone that should always be ready at the drop of a hat to stop reading, texting, etc., and go into action. So there is much downtime like a real fireman or PA. They sit around playing cards. And then BAM! Run across town and pick up a set of hard drives and return with a cable needed. Or put that fire out!

VR

I've been waiting for my entire teenage to adult life for VR.

Living in Silicon Valley, you'd think that this stuff would be at the forefront. But no, its all hardware here, very little software companies.

It started with CD-ROM games like Night Trap that gave me those ideas as possibilities.

Not that 3D is bad but its still just a screen. VR is the technology I'm waiting to tell my stories.


Why? Because watching I want to take you to a new world.

21 year old feature film director

I really laugh out loud(lol) when I see an ad in a filmmaking magazine that has a 21 year old talking about how they shot a feature film. Now I'm not claiming these people out there are wrong or anything but I've never met a 21 year old with any wisdom.

My thoughts about comic books and movies

I do like comic book movies. They are worlds apart. All there is are reboots and revamps and sequels. Why all the crap? Because comics are ongoing series, and movies have no option but to show origin stories or sequels. No movie is going to go right into the character without showing where they come from. I know I wouldn't want to go see a film without loving that protagonist or at the very least seeing my own qualities in them.
That's the problem. My guess is the fix to this is that comic book movies will eventually die down. My best fix is to only see a few of characters no matter if I've read a few issues or been with the series from start to finish.
Yes I've seen all three(so far) Punisher movies. The attitude and darkness have only been captured in the first one. The second one was horrible, the third was slightly better.
Yes I seen all three(so far) Spider-man movies. Big mistake being tricked into seeing the third one.
X-men: First Class is probably in the top section of newer films that actually felt like watching a comic movie besides too many cheesy one liners.The worst examples have been the X-men Origin series. I keep saying this on boards or in articles but Wolverine is a short, ugly French-Canadian. Make it right or don't make it.

Horror movie guide for Halloween

The horror genre ranges from campy to gory. Sometimes a horror movie is so bad its funny. Sometimes, a billion sequels are made as in the case of Saw. Some people claim horror films are really comedy in disguise. Some people are dead before the end of this sentence.

Below are some of the "spookiest" movies for Halloween fun and excitement.

Saw(the original)

Alien

Halloween(duh!)

Night of the Living Dead

Psycho

Carrie

The Simpsons Halloween Specials(its not scary, but there are numerous parodies of the other movies here)

Silence of the Lambs

Misery

Rosemary's Baby -directed by Roman Polanski

Army of Darkness

Scanners(one of the underrated films of our time)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Rocky Horror Picture Show(not really scary unless you are afraid of transvestism, and raunchy sex)

Is there something missing here? Suggestions are always welcome...to go to hell! MUHAHAHHAHA.