Things of note: I hired a new DP for Soul Winners and we’re headed to Nashville in November to start filming. Sean Clark is great, and I’m glad he landed in our humble Chicago market. I’m worried about losing him to NYC next summer, so if you’re out there in tv/movie land, this guy deserves your finest job. He has also taught me to chill out on my business edge and remember we’re making art. My skill set and training makes me a producer, so trying to direct is like thinking of something pretty, then having my mind drift to cost per unit, staffing– but I’m learning to focus on aesthetics, not production office troubles.
Filmmaking is in the moment, what’s in front of you– not what might happen, or didn’t happen– placed in a gorgeous rectangle.
Moving on, I’m a rookie tech, so sometimes I kind of glaze over, I was working the phones Sunday morning tracking down equipment and boy does everyone have an opinion on filters. Strong opinions that belong with religion and politics.
I’ve been working a few days at my NU tech job, mainly as your friendly neighborhood gaffer, Mark and Stephen were nice enough to send a headset down to me at a shoot so I could listen to “Camera 2 you’re cutting off his head”"Camera 3 GET THERE GET THERE!” “Camera 1, no the other red head with an oboe.” “That’s not an oboe.” “The clarinet, whatever.” We’ve had some nice moments where I feel like I have 5 kid brothers, and one super chic tall sister.
Meanwhile back at the ranch we just finished shooting in Rome for The Experiment. I did not go to Rome, but I hear they have a Mr. Panino. I’m very curious about Mr. Panino. I’ve been raking through organizational goodness with everyone, and we’re quite pleased to have our new office with new chairs, hand selected by interior designer director Clayton Brown who has this insane eye for product design. I guess that comes with having that aesthetic ability directors have, you know? I had worked previously as a photographer and designer for print– but I to this day am unable to decorate my own home or dress myself.
The last project I have been working on is a set of spec scripts, I can’t divulge much about the project as amazingly, I had an elevator pitch moment– BUT– it involves architecture (my other boyfriend after video production) committed to paper with the creative talents of my husband and our good pal who teaches writing at NU and is hiding some of the world’s best written detective stories in his desk drawer. We met a week ago to do some character development, and things got fantastic.
So, I’m wiped out.
I’ll leave you with a few songs I’m enjoying as I seem to have traveled in a time machine to a decade I DIDN’T EVEN LIVE IN.
Hard Loving Loser/ Mimi and Richard Farina, I Shall be Released/ The Band, My Back Pages/ The Byrds, The Passenger/ Iggy Pop
I don’t know what’s going on with me, because truth be told on a typical day I am belting out Been Around the World (Puff Daddy and the Family) mainly because I love the sheer gluttony of pop “rap”. All my women they be tens. What can I say.