Conan

  • January 23, 2010 9:33 pm

Photo by Dewey Nicks for New York Times Magazine, May 2009

“All I ask of you, especially young people — is one thing. Please don’t be cynical — I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

—–

This will run like a broken record in my head through the rest of my professional life.

Balance

  • January 19, 2010 11:40 am

Me with mouse ears and the slate, empty Pick Staiger venue.

The board at 137 was kind enough to promote me to Director of Operations last week which will be keeping me quite busy with workflow solutions. Before I could get a big management head… (balance) I worked a 15 hour day as a PA for the Martin Luther King celebration at Northwestern. I got an incredible treat of watching the drummer of the Ramsey Lewis Trio tune his kit. I mean you think you know a good drummer, then you stand around just listening to this guy warm up. I was spellbound. Amazing. I want muscle memory.

I spent most the day crawling on the floor behind cinematographer Erin K. taping her cables, and moving gear from one venue to the next, mastering the art of 3 point turns with overloaded AV carts.

My good buddy Joanna, who PAs for commercial and studio productions in the region was recently telling me she’d like to move into the production office. It dawned on her that PAing on the set was in fact 15 hours of heavy lifting. (Yes, I have responded to requests of moving no less than 20 tires from one side of the room to the other in addition to flats. I’m 5′1″, I should be in front of a computer crunching numbers for union actor fittings.) I totally understand it. And while this is not to say muscle vs brains, I don’t know what I’d ever do if the equipment truck pulled in and it was just me to greet it at the sound stage dock. It’s a bit like having your grandmother be a furniture warehouse picker. Well, time to switch hats and play the “find indie film money” game this week. Still in the midst of grant-a-thon 2010.

Erin prepping to shoot the MLK candle light vigil at Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University.

Odds and Ends January 9th 2010 Edition

  • January 9, 2010 10:49 am

I’m completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly. –HAL 9000

  • This week my job has consisted of FIND MONEY, as such I am in the trenches applying for four grants. I’d typically provide clipart of steam coming out of my ears while a couple of zzz’s are anchored by a speech bubble– but I really hate clipart. So if I neglected your phone call, e-mail, or lunch schedule I’m in the trenches finding money. Luckily I work with a crack team of directors who do the hard parts like writing the treatment.
  • 137 Films was recently awarded a grant from the MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture and we couldn’t be more excited.
  • Clayton, co-director of The Atom Smashers (now available on iTunes through an awesome PBS/ITVS digital initiative BUY STUFF it helps us make our second film) launched another blog… he moved from tumblr to WordPress (welcome aboard) you can find information about moon holes and the Tevatron here.
  • My wonderful friend Xan is making a documentary called Mormons Make Movies currently in development with Kartemquin this has been interesting for me as I spent this summer shooting in Utah for The Experiment and was thrown into the heart of it all. If this story interests you and you’d like to see it get made please donate, and might I suggest donating at the HOMEMADE PIE level? Yeah, this is why we love the indies. The studio will not reward your ticket purchase with a freakin’ pie.
  • This is random, but yesterday I caught myself reflecting on what a great picture MOON was in 2009. It was my favorite. I’ve been getting asked about my best flicks for 09, and its definitely that one. Such a great indie coming up from the festival circuit. Here’s a link to the presskit with the director’s statement.
  • In other COOL NEWS, New York Times breaks down your Netflix cue by city and neighborhood. Top hit in my town, Milk.