More flickr updates from a recent concert I attended:
I'm really starting to like flickr...I resisted digital photography for a while because it seemed like by making printing unnecessary, taking the picture became a dead end, and most digital photos where never even looked at again. I admit this is happening with me (two harddrives full and counting), but having my stuff up on the web makes it feel like passing around a newly printed stack of 4x6's...almost.
My flickr page has been getting some action lately from some pictures I took yesterday downtown at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire 100th anniversary memorial parade. Check them out here:
If I wait any longer to update, it'll be spring! Today is a rainday; everything seems to have stopped because of the drizzle. But I'm happy because I realized yesterday that it was getting very close to the application deadline for the Cannes Residence Cinefondation, so I was able to finish that this morning when I realized I had no plans. That brings this season's screenplay applications to six, the most ever! Rejection letter season doesn't start for another four or five months.
The days have now been very short for a long time. There was a bit of warm weather recently, but now it's frigid again and the saddies are in full effect. The only positive thing to come of 4 months of 15-hour nights is that there's plenty of time to write, which is nearly impossible when it's light 18 hours a day and 95 degrees, like it was all last summer.
I have been secretly writing something new, which, along with desperately looking forward to spring, has by now taken up the majority of my winter. It'll be spring in less than a month!
Just in case you thought I forgot my own news page's anniversary, I didn't. But...since I've posted so much stuff lately, I have nothing left! Except this picture:
This Friday I had the priviledge of attending the cast and crew screening of Kelvin Bias's first feature, Noctambulous. The event was held at Tribeca Cinemas, in the very same theater where Puzzled played as part of the 2009 Big Apple Film Festival. The theater was packed with the cast, crew, and friends, and seeing the film, which was shot in New York on a very low budget for a feature film, was an amazing experience.
I don't know what the future of this film will be, but I'm excited for Kelvin. It's a huge achievement completing a feature film, and I can't wait to see what happens next!
But that's not all! Corn 2 is on Vimeo and better than ever. Will there ever be a Corn 3? There was about 10 years between shooting Corn and Corn 2, so I wouldn't be too hopeful...yet.
In case you've been spending the last 15 years doing something other than following my artistic progress, Sight & Sound was my first filmmaking class, back in sophomore year. It's also where Group 8 was formed, and maybe was the best creative experience I've ever had. How can making 20 films in a 15-week semester be anything but?
But the year is only 4 days old. We will have time to return to this as the days grow longer.
I am grateful for the friendships I have, especially for the long ones, the ones that can remember a time just different enough from the time we live in now to be considered different. Friendships that saw places that don't exist any more, did things in a way that isn't done any more, maybe even met people who aren't around any more. And because whatever I have that can be called a career is irrevocably tied to the friends I have, don't be surprised when I announce my 15th Anniversary Sight & Sound Film Reunion Weekend Extravaganza, timed to coincide with the exact weekend that we shot Pepper.
But to business: Corn is now on Vimeo! Happy New Year:
There is a ton of snow on the ground here in Brooklyn, so I've spent the majority of the last 48 hours indoors. Therefore, I've had lots of time to do a bit of sprucing up with the old website, including, at long last, putting The Making Of Puzzled up on Vimeo. Now it looks even better, is DVD quality (probably), and plays on your PC (I think)! Could it get any better? Okay, I'll just embed it right here. So you don't even have to click.
Well, like March in the old riddle, 2010 on this news page has come in like a lion and gone out like a sad, tired, and inconsistent lamb. All in all it was a fun year, and productive, too! I finished a short film, wrote another feature, designed video for a play, and probably other stuff too that I can't remember just now. The best part of the year was collaborating creatively with Matt Carlson, Jim Chan, and Jim Vidal...they say film is a collaborative art but a lot of it sure feels like sitting in a room by myself staring at a computer screen.
However, as 2010 gets nailed in its coffin and 2011 bursts forth from its father's ear, I'll leave you with this awesome video I shot at the Hudson Guild Theatre during Matt's soundcheck for the (so far, but definitely not forever) most recent performance of We Outran the Sun. I can't wait to see what's to come with that show in the next year! All in all, 2010 was good, but 2011 will be better...I'm excited!
In the interest of November's pride, I am updating today with little to report. However, since I couldn't let a whole month go by without an update, I figured now was as good as any time to submit November's entry.
As the weather is colder and the days are almost unbelievably shorter, which makes me think back fondly to summer, when the sun shone before I awoke and after I went to sleep (maybe). I am wrapping up a photography project that I've mentioned before, but haven't yet completed. Anyway, now's the time to finally share a picture I took, and since this posting is dedicated to the month of November, here's a picture taken this very month:
It's a picture of Vinegar Hill House, which is in Vinegar Hill, which is a weird place. This place sure packs them in, though. Not sure how anyone finds it. Darn New Yorkers know everything.
Well, if you weren't at the Hudson Guild Theatre last night then you missed out! We Outran the Sun looked and sounded great. Due to constraints of the stage, the projector was on a box, the canvas was on a easel, and the piano was an electric keyboard, but the performance was inspired and the portraits only seemed richer with a few months separation from the last time I'd seen it all together.
This is the part where I take just a little bit of pity on you and give you a glimpse of what you missed:
Lighting Design by Kate Ashton; Set Design by Damon Pelletier; Performed on the set of Once Upon a Time in New Jersey; Design by Jen Price Fick; Lighting Design by Isabella Byrd
We Outran the Sun at the Hudson Guild Theatre is less than a week away. Before I go any further, it's Monday, October 25th at 8PM. TIckets are $15 and you shall buy many: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/782825
Okay, now down to business: According to the Prospect Theater Comany's website, their mission includes a shared "interest in pursuing excellence and innovation." Because that usually leads the Prospect to re-invent classic plays and musicals using heightened language, historical context, and ensemble performing, presenting a modern solo work comprised mostly of pop songs might not at first seem a perfect fit. However, those few lucky enough to be in attendance this coming Monday night at the Hudson Guild Theatre will witness a performance, unique in form and emotion, that will well conform to the Prospect's stated goal to use all elements of performance to "fully create a theatrical world."
The Prospect Theater Company's presentation of Matthew Carlson's We Outran the Sun is a multimedia journey through the artist's own historical context, performed by an ensemble of his closest friends and family, in the heightened language of verse-chorus-verse. Weaving anecdotes, memories, and secrets, ten candid video time capsules help the artist reveal second-hand the most revelatory moments of his life: from a high-school trip to a bachelor party to a very private road trip through the Florida Keys. These videos form a question that the artist attempts to answer, following each video with a live performance of a response-in-song, threading together moments and emotions of every ilk in an effort to expain why these moments are as important to him as they are. But because good art is both a picture and a mirror, the shared journey through the artist's life is paralleled by the personal, introspective journey through our own.
But don't just take my word for it. (After all, I did lose quite a bit of sleep helping to make it happen.) Check out what the pros are saying about We Outran the Sun, performing this Monday, October 25th, at 8PM, at the Hudson Guild Theatre, 441 West 26th Street, New York, NY:
"We Outran the Sun opened our UpStage Cabaret season this year and I'm incredibly proud to have presented Matt Carlson's compelling, heartfelt and humorous exploration of friendship and memory. This song cycle is a surprising blend of music, performance and video that creates a tapestry of emotional connections weaving together complex human relationships to uncover what comprises the families we create. Matt's songs are a true celebration of the ties that bind." -Preston Lane, Artistic Director of Triad Stage
"We Outran the Sun is that rare combination of live theater, concert and multimedia infused with lots of heart and soul. With his blend of original songs, personal interviews and stunning visual images, we at once feel at home in Matt Carlson's world and grateful to witness the snapshots from his life punctuated by his piano. In this production, the Sun truly shines." -Krystel Lucas, Producer of Studio Tisch
Back when I was younger, if you wanted to watch a movie, and you were not in a movie theater, you had two choices: the channel 11 Saturday afternoon movie, or watching a movie on your VHS VCR. The best part about VHS was the best part about any cassette tape: if you stopped it and then went to school or ate dinner or went to bed, when you came back to it, it was exactly where you left it. Also, I guess that everything I ever watched before going to college was pan and scan. Does that mean I've never "really" seen The Gods Must Be Crazy?
The reason I want to talk about VHS is that, failing so miserably to unlock the secrets of Hi8 last week, I embarked on a scouring of old VHS tapes at my mom's house to try and find the elusive 1995 video I made with Doug and Reuben toward the end of our Frame and Sequence class. I'll just fast forward a couple of hours and tell you that I found, surrounded by tapes of Batman: The Animated Series and Shallow Grave, a tape labeled only "1995." So success there.
Okay, even in the abridged version of this story there should be some mention of the amazing image quality that VHS had preserved, even after 15 years of sitting in my mom's basement. So from today on I'll hear nothing bad about VHS, at least until another 15 years has gone by and I can see how all my mini-DV tapes have held up. By the way, is now a good time to admit that I don't know what "VHS" stands for?
Ahhh...September!!! I'm not going to let this month slip by without some appreciation! I've put a new image on my home page. Life is good, and well appreciated!
The turning calendar pages send to my mind thoughts of the impermanence of all things: Life is at the top of the list. Shortly below, on the long list of impermanent things, is analog video tape. Specifically, Hi8. Oh, Hi8. Why didst thou even exist???
I'm guessing Hi8 was just an attempt to get people who already had VCRs to buy something new. "But will the tapes play in my VCR?" the old (and short-lived) VHS-C ads would rhetorically ask. No, VHS-C, they won't, and that's just the way we like it.
In all my collections from all my earthly travels I've collected samples of so many video media: VHS, 3/4, Beta-SP, and on and on forever and ever, but even though Hi8 was the home camcorder medium of choice for most of my Tisch peers back in the late 90s, I only ever possessed 3 Hi8 cassettes. Of course I still have all three. Or had. Until recently.
Friday evening I embarked on a quest: Perhaps I've mentioned this before, but my first ever collaborative project at NYU was a photo/music project with Doug Mirabello. It was awesome. My roommate Mike starred as a sleep-deprived homicidal college student insomniac sleepwalker. Totally rad. But since the project was finished on slides and audio cassette, translating the magic genious to the digital age has proved difficult. Well, impossible, really, or, more accurately, unattempted. But Doug has been bothering me (for years) to give him the slides, and I thought, "Wow, great, but how will he know how to arrange them so his re-creation is true to the original vision from 15 years ago?"
The answer is that, years and years ago, Doug, Reuben, and I all got together in a tiny room on the 8th floor and videotaped our slide and audio cassette projects on, you guessed it, Hi8. Or, at least, I think we did. We definitely taped them. I remember that. But even though I sincerely remember watching the project on a TV, I can't remember where it is now. But I know this: I keep everything.
So, guessing that we recorded it on Hi8, and having only 3 Hi8 tapes, I took the tapes to Jim Vidal's place. Jim, inexplicably, has a Hi8 deck juiced into his PS3.
Anyway, fast-forward a couple of minutes and I'm on Jim's floor re-spooling by hand one tape that I had to break open seconds earlier to salvage anything I could from the shredded tape, and then another of the tapes snapped without fanfare in the deck. The only survivor of the three was not even mine, it was Marta's audition tape from her color sync film, I think. Typical.
Here's a picture Jim snapped of my irreplaceable artwork disappearing forever:
Moral of the story: Nothing lasts forever, but Hi8 even less so. I know you've got some old stuff sitting around somewhere, break it out! It might have turned to dust, or shredded under the weight of its own insignificance, like my Hi8 tapes, and the forgotten dreams their thin plastic spools once held.
I missed the beginning of September. However, I still can't promise greater diligence in the future. This is what I've learned today:
Blendy, rich aroma and mellow taste, will truly enhance your relaxing moments.
It's true. My current relaxing moment is being Blendy enhanced as I type.
Yesterday, thanks to Jim Chan's continued generosity, I was back editing. However I did not complete Matt's show's DVD. Instead I only got through 3 songs before I went stir crazy and started exporting (during which I promptly fell asleep while listening to the alternate side).
Man, that Blendy is sure relaxing. Mmmm.
Today I am throwing away my portable CD player finally. I haven't used it for years, due to the fact that I haven't purchased a CD since Amnesiac and the player scratched my copy of The Rolling Stones Singles Disc 2 so badly that I still haven't heard Lady Jane.
It's official! Matt Carlson will be performing We Outran the Sun at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC on September 13!
Check out the listing on their website (including an awesome picture of Matt that I took) HERE! My name is in the listing! Awesome!
Did I mention that the show also has a chance to move to NYC for a commercial run? Man, I really have to get to work on that DVD. This summer has really flown by.
The only other news is that the script that I've been working on is officially done! However, the chance remains that some "unofficial" edits will take place as typos, grammatical errors, plot holes, etc. are discovered. Same old same old.
More picture taking. Strangely enough, I found myself back in Vinegar Hill! I can't escape.
No specific news yet about a future life for Matt Carlson's We Outran the Sun, but I hope to have some confirmation soon about a performance upcoming in North Carolina and maybe even something back in New York. I supposed to be editing the footage I shot during the Studio Tisch run last month as well, but I haven't exactly gotten to it yet. When I do I'll have to post something to make up for last time.
It's August. The days are already getting noticeably shorter. Autumn is just around the corner.
Although I'm not ready to go pumpkin picking just yet, I did celebrate the season by taking pictures around the city all day today. I even walked all the way to the very strange neighborhood of Vinegar Hill, which is a selection of very quaint brownstones and townhouses surrounded on three sides by the largest Con Edison depot I've ever seen, complete with two smokestacks that look like garbage incinerators out of a Terry Gilliam movie. I did not stay long.
I then spent the evening hours walking around Nolita, SoHo, and Greenwich Village with Jim Chan, who pointed at cool stuff that I should take pictures of. Here's a photo of Jim telling me what to do:
I'm writing again. The latest script will be my best
ever! We'll see.
I did apply to several...I don't want to call them
contests, so let's say organizations, with my second-latest
script, and so far I have nothing to report. The reason I'm
mentioning this is that since most submission dates are in
the spring, now's the season for rejection emails galore.
I've gotten a few in my time, and will get many more. In any
case, although it may seem absurd to say that I'm not writing
just to win a contest, considering I've never won one,
because it's not true, and something that's absurd and not
true is doubly absurd. In any case, watching a story come to
life is exciting, especially being the one who, luckily
enough, gets to breathe the life into the story from the
beginning.
In an effort to bring what might be my most rambling
update in nearly eight years to a quiet and benign
conclusion, I'm going to merely say that I'm happy with what
I've been writing, even if a certain Jim will forever have
just a few comments and suggestions...
Well, the show has closed and life has returned to
normal. Yesterday I even did laundry AND went food shopping,
in the same day! As of today, however, I am in
post-production for We Outran the Sun: The Movie! which I
shot on this past Saturday. However, due to my non-stop
editing activity, I was forced to purchase yet another
external harddrive, this time a G-Drive (as opposed to a
G-Raid, which is a double-stack and superfast, but also out
of stock). So now I have 2Tb that's pretty much exclusively
for storage, which is nice because then I can continue to
dedicate my G-Raid to editing. I'm currently moving and
copying files onto the new drive, an operation that my
computer tells me will take a combined 32 more hours.
Don't be too worried for my sanity just yet, however, as
this editing process will likely take at least a few weeks if
not more, so I will not be on over-drive. And as usual I am
looking forward to new frontiers of creativity, including
perhaps another spec commercial with Jim Chan and maybe even
finishing my most recent screenplay, now that I have some
space in my brain to think about it!
Finally, regarding spec commercials, it turns out that
the Samsung Spec
Commercial that Jim Chan and I made this past
January was actually a winner of the Runner-up prize! That
means we were in the top ten of all the submissions, which I
imagine were many. Check out the evidence here: http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/barcelona2010/. (Scroll
to the bottom and look for Jim's name!)
At long last, closing night of We Outran the Sun is upon
us! It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating our
opening! (Actually it was three days ago.)
I think I would not be accused of exageration to call the
four-day run an overwhelming success. For my part, seeing work
that I collaborated on presented to a live audience was a
great thrill and an incredibly satisfying experience. I know
Matt has plans to continue the life of this show (and hopes to
perform it, to start, in North Carolina this fall), but as I
depart from the show and wish it all the best, I'd like to say
that it was a challenging and wonderful experience that stands
out in my mind as one of the more satisfying artistic
experiences I've had, and I'm grateful to Matt for letting me
share in his unique artistic vision. And a special thanks to
everyone who turned up to watch!
We Outran the Sun is now playing...two performances are
now in the past, and two more are yet to be. Tonight I'm
videotaping the performance, which is the last step for me in
this journey (other than editing, which may wait a couple
days or weeks, depending on my mood. Working without a
deadline may be relaxing, but it's also pretty dangerous). In
any case, if you'd like to come and see the show, you have
exactly two more chances: tonight and tomorrow night!
By the way, the above image is based on a photograph I
took of Matt, which was then made into the show's wonderful
signature art by Matt's friend Dave Beck, a fantastic artist
and a subject of one of Matt's portraits. Check out my
favorite piece of his here:
It is so so hot today I can't even edit! My computer was
swimming through peanut butter before so I've been letting it
rest for the most part for today, after I grilled myself a
nice piece of salmon on my external harddrive.
The good news is that Matt is posting yet another
interview on his blog, which means I can post it here. It's
the only edit we made featuring multiple interviews, in this
case three interviews with four of Matt's high school friends
(two interviewed together). Since their interviews came in
the mail in all different formats, volumes, lengths, and with
wildly different content, editing was a challenge, but also a
whole lot of fun. All in all it was very reminiscent of The Making of Puzzled!
All I do is edit edit edit! Even now, on the 4th of July,
I am editing. This would be tedious if it weren't so much
fun! Things are really shaping up for the Matt Carlson
project. Eight of ten interviews are in good shape and done
or nearly done, with only one needing more major revision and
one yet to be shot! And the performance is only a week and a
half away! Performances will be in the evening, Thurs July
15-Sun July 18 at NYU. Details on Facebook.
