Film – Personal Pondering of Mine

Globetrotting Through Time

The beginning stages of any film is a nerve-racking yet exciting experience. To me, this stage of a documentary enhances these crazy emotions – especially when your subject matter is so special to you. As many of you already know, I’m heading to Amsterdam and Paris in September for a little vacation time.

What I haven’t revealed to the world yet is my intention to shoot some concept footage for a lengthy documentary project I am embarking upon. I’ve decided to call it Globetrotting Through Time. It is a documentary about recreating pictures that my Great Grandpa Louie took on one of his trips around the world back in the 60s. There will be side by sides of pictures from then and now as well as an expose on the process of finding these exact sites despite the inevitable changes 50 years will have on a place.

Amongst the globetrotting community, there is a theory that this wanderlust that drives us is hereditary. This theory will be explored in my documentary through interviews with my cousins who are obsessed with travel as well and potentially my Great Grandpa Louie’s only living daughter – my Great Aunt Rona who will share her experiences growing up with him and some insight into what was important to him. There will be excerpts from his travel journals read and various pictures shown from places such as Amsterdam, Paris, Tel Aviv, South Africa, Copenhagen, and many more places around the world.

This is a special piece to me because I think that it is rare to have such special relics from a time where the world was a different place, a time when a travel blog was in two separate pieces – the journal and the scrapbook – and they were only shared amongst family and friends.

20 June , 201720 June , 2017 by Sam Categories: Film, Ideas, PhotographyTags: 60s, documentary, film, globetrotting, movies, Photography, today, travel, traveltuesday, wanderlust Leave a comment

Thoughts on Rogue One

As an avid Star Wars fan, I had to see this film. I knew going in that it is a side story and all of that, however I was instantly let down when the movie started without the Star Wars signature scrolling prologue to get you in the mindset of what is about to happen. It gave the beginning of the film a very lackluster aura. This feeling of disappointment never really left throughout the entire film because that beginning is the thing that sets you up for the rest of the film. Overall the cinematography wasn’t bad and I still appreciated the fight scenes and story line – it didn’t feel as if the movie was as long as it was. There was a large portion of predictability to the film in the blowing up of the planet as they were finding out information and the main characters falling in love just before they die at the end of the film was predictable but fitting for the story line. I am quite excited to hear that George Lucas is directing the next Star Wars film himself, I feel that it will bring a touch of authenticity to the next film and eliminate some of the cheesy feeling in this one. Still a Star Wars fan for life and so sad to hear about Carrie Fisher, not only was she our princess but she took major strides for women and in speaking out on addiction. Rest in Peace princess, you will be with us always as an empowering force to be out own hero.

2 January , 20172 January , 2017 by Sam Categories: Film, Ideas, ReviewsTags: Carrie Fisher, Spoilers, Star Wars Leave a comment

Thoughts on Cafe Society

Woody Allen has always been on my top list of directors, from the classic Annie Hall to Midnight In Paris to You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (which I was fortunate enough to walk the red carpet at Cannes for) he has captivated me with his dry humor and quick wit. Sure his style of cinema is a bit slow moving but the writing is top notch.

Cafe Society had a star studded cast with some of my favorite people to watch including Jesse Eisenberg and Blake Lively. Being a period piece during this cinephile’s favorite era of Hollywood was icing on the cake. The vernacular and the outfits were impeccable, I have always imagined what it would be like working in the film industry during the early part of the 1900s when the studio houses were on the rise. People like Adolf Zukor and Marcus Loew were the ones to rub shoulders with.

Ever since I started learning about the history of America’s film industry in Cinema History classes I became obsessed. I stumbled across an old copy of Fitzgerald’s Love of the Last Tycoon in a library in Holland and ate the novel up in a measly six hours. Hollywood’s Big Six had me captivated with every scandalous detail.

Back to Woody’s most recent masterpiece, I really appreciated seeing the way a young naive boy can go out to Hollywood, get chewed up by the industry and spit out a hardened soul capable of things that previously seemed out of character for them. Eisenberg played this character well, perfectly portraying the nervous awkwardness of a child new to the scene then flowing into the fast talking, swanky NYC club manager rubbing shoulders with all of high society.

It was painful for me to see Eisenberg’s character go through the despicable male flaw that his uncle portrayed back in Hollywood. It was disgusting to see him move on from his first love, find a beautiful woman who had his child, just to turn around and cheat on her with his first love – who is married to his Uncle. It was practically incestuous. I was glad to see that they didn’t take it further than a lot of time and a kiss but sad that he went down that road at all. He seemed like a stand up guy for the majority of the film.

Regardless of these thoughts, the characters were three dimensional and the writing was superb in a classic Woody Allen style. I would highly recommend spending a couple hours with Cafe Society. Have you watched it? What thoughts did you have on the piece?

17 December , 2016 by Sam Categories: Film, IdeasTags: Blake lively, Cafe society, cinema, film, Jesse eisenberg, kirsten stewart, review, steve carell, woody allen Leave a comment

5% Is Not Acceptable

Naomi Mcdougall Jones fired me up in her Ted Talk on revolutionizing not only the way women are seen in film but the amount of female driven films out there. She talks about women in front of and behind the camera and how our stories are meant to be heard. She even talks about her newest endeavor, The 51 Fund which helps female filmmakers reach the funding they need to produce feature films with budgets in the 1-5 million range. She encourages women to tell their stories because our films sell more tickets and appeal to the 51% of the audience that Hollywood ignores.

If you watch the above video you will see what and how she inspired me to start writing again. She pushed me to not only blog but to continue developing my scripts into feature length projects that I can move forward with finding the funding and directing myself because my ideas and my dreams are worth it. By next summer I hope to have three finished feature scripts and begin the funding process for my first feature film.

Will you join me and the many others who are taking Naomi’s challenge to pledge to watch one film by a female director a month? It is so upsetting to me that so few of my fellow female filmmakers are given the opportunity to work in our field, the statistics are upsetting. I for one choose not to let them get me down, I chose to pursue my creative endeavors by any means possible. Here is a great resource for finding films by women to help revolutionize the way we see women behind the camera, you can find the same link in the embedded Ted Talk above.

Only 5% of all major films since 1940 have been directed by women. This is not an acceptable statistic in the 21st century and I refuse to believe the garbage that women are not as creative as men. Hollywood needs to invest in it’s untapped potential and appeal to it’s largest audience – over 50% of movie tickets are purchased by women. I aim to be a part of the change and watch more films by women in hopes that this number will rise in future years.

10 December , 20167 December , 2016 by Sam Categories: Change, FilmTags: female filmmakers, film, makefilmslikeagirl, Naomi mcdougall jones, ted talk, women Leave a comment

Couldn’t Finish This Film

There are very few movies that I have started and simply could not finish. Typically, if I start a film the student in me needs to see the end to complete my understanding and personal analysis of it. The first film I couldn’t finish (and to this day still have to watch in multiple sittings) was Blood Diamond. The way it threw reality right into your face and let it dance around was jarring. Seeing so many kids being treated in such a way and manipulated into killing others. I still can’t look at a diamond with the idea of ‘girls best friend’, all I see is spilled blood for vanity’s sake. It disgusts me.

This week I have been on a huge Spike Lee kick; I’ve watched She’s Gotta Have it, Red Hook Summer, Miracle at St Anna, Inside Man, Crooklyn and Mo’ Better Blues. Today I’ll be watching some of his earlier short films and for the rest of the week I’ve got Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Old Boy, and Passing Strange planned with a finale of Do The Right Thing which is my favorite Spike film and happened to come out the year I was born.

I tried watching Da Sweet Blood of Jesus and it became the second film I couldn’t finish watching. Have you tried watching this 2014 film? It’s pretty raw. I felt a constant state of unease and nausea. Although I did not finish this film, I’m certain that I was feeling exactly what the director wanted me to feel. His framing was on point like usual, it was just the content of drinking human blood to get closer to Jesus – or however he put it – that truly disturbed me to the core.

Maybe I do live with some rose colored glasses on but certain things kill my soul – children being slaughtered and slaughtering others and humans killing other’s to drink their blood. Oddly enough, I believe I have been conditioned by the media to feel this way. At least about the blood. Vampires are one thing because we know they aren’t real so when they ‘come to suck your blood’ its almost comical, but the way Spike Lee shows this man losing his mind, stealing blood from a blood bank, and cutting open someone’s neck to go in there and drink the blood is too real – too raw. It reminded me of tribes of the world that have traits of cannibalism and shook me to my core.

Have you ever seen a film that you couldn’t finish? What are their titles? What themes do you find yourself shying away from?

Just a little disclaimer here: I’m sure there are plenty of horror films I couldn’t finish but that is an area of filmmaking that I will work on I just can’t watch! I’m a wimp – unless it has a solid storyline then I’m in!

24 November , 2015 by Sam Categories: FilmTags: blood, blood diamond, cinema, da sweet blood of jesus, diamond, disturbing, film, nerd, spike lee, thoughts Leave a comment

Coneheads: Why They Terrify Me

I’m well aware that this movie was meant as a comedy, however when it came out in 1993 my sisters insisted on watching it. I was only three or four years old. I didn’t understand why their heads looked that way. The make-up was done so well that I thought it was real. I thought that as babies when their heads were still soft they got stuck coming out of their mother’s vagina and it changed the shape of their heads. Screaming, I ran out of the living room and hid under my blanket. Just yesterday I saw a commercial using the Coneheads characters and twenty three years later I still get the shivers and have to look away!

10 August , 2015 by Sam Categories: FilmTags: 1993, afraid, comedy, coneheads, scary 2 Comments

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Most Influential Actor of His Time?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been picking great roles since childhood and is arguably one of the best actors of his time being in influential films such as Angels in the Outfield, 10 Things I Hate About You, 50/50, Inception, Brick, Don Jon, Looper and many more. Gordon-Levitt also launched hitREC●rd at Sundance in 2010.

What is hitREC●rd? It’s a collaborative production company that gives artists from all over the world a chance to collaborate and get paid to create a variety of projects including a television show. When someone uploads their original work, you have permission to download it and remix with your own inspiration and re-upload it. Gordon-Levitt himself will be looking at the submissions and deciding what goes on television.

The contributors to the final submission that makes it onto television will receive real checks in the mail. In 2013 he sent out checks for a grand total of $737,175.09 in 2013 to members of his website which you can find here and watch an intro video and learn about the different projects they do and how you can contribute. This new form of production company is giving artists all over an outlet for creation and an opportunity to see how their vision can be transformed into something new.

Gordon-Levitt likes to think of himself as a regular guy, so you can find him on his site with the handle ‘RegularJOE’. He knows by being open with his ideas and bringing regular people together in this social experiment he can create something great that nobody has done before, making him more influential than his films alone which have been apart of all of our lives.

When actors use the influence they build in positive ways it gives me hope for humanity again. I think it is great that he brought this outlet for artists, writers, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers alike to come together and join in creating these short films and episodes while making some side cash. I know I have been checking it out, will you? You can find me with the handle ‘SamFran89’.

27 July , 201531 July , 2015 by Sam Categories: Film, ReviewsTags: 10 things i hate about you, angels in the outfield, brick, collaborative production, hitrecord, inception, influential actor, joseph gordon-levitt, looper Leave a comment

Chase of the Wolf

Chase of the Wolf was my first short film at film school, I was so nervous during this process. Being inspired by Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, I intertwined the story of the Three Little Pigs with my fictional story about a couple of kids who attempt to escape their alcoholic father.

There were so many tribulations on this production. Most stressful being that the “friend” who offered to play the third child chose to get drunk that night and be MIA for call time to drive to location (we carpooled from university). I started hyperventilating immediately – I thought the picture was finished. Who could I get on such short notice or no notice? My dear friend, who later became my producer, got behind the wheel and told me to start rewriting on the drive. We would make it work.

How could my story be an adaptation of the Three Little Pigs if there were only two ‘little pigs’? Not wanting to make my own screen debut while also directing, writing, producing, filming, and editing on my own, I pulled out my pencil and started cutting and editing my script. It felt all too natural to be making another draft – I had already done so many.

This was my first experience with lighting and the XL-1 that I was filming with so it was really trial and error. I learned so much just by doing it. When showing my film in narrative class, my teacher swore I filmed with the XL-2 because of how well lit she said my shots were. I was beaming. Something I thought would be ruined was turning out pretty okay.

I like to go back to this whenever I am starting a new project to remind myself that things always turn out better than I expect. As TG (my advisor and mentor) always says ‘always have a plan A – Z’ , This set taught me to be ready for everything and stay creative in working around a camera. I used a long board as a dolly for one shot and really just tried as many techniques as I could during the time I could get my friends to do whatever I said. It was great. Here’s a look at my very first film: