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.
Finally updates are back on a Tuesday! I admit I've been
a little lax lately about the Tuesday schedule, but I promise
to be more careful in the future. However, in a effort to
make amends, I have included yet another interview from Matt
Carlson's We Outran the Sun. Matt will be posting this on his
blog soon, so consider this a world
premiere!
So if I've been a little vague about the project I've
been working on lately with Matt Carlson, it's probably
because I didn't have anything but a few stills and a link to
his blog to share with you. But this week, Matt posted one
piece of what we've been doing so I feel free to do the same.
The project is a song cycle that Matt wrote and will perform,
and we've been shooting interviews of the subjects of the
songs, mostly Matt's friends. The interviews will be
projected during Matt's performances as introductions to the
songs.
This is a video of an interview we shot recently with
Stacey Linnartz, a wonderful actress and Matt's classmate at
NYU Grad Acting. Stacey was one of the twelve Grad Acting
students I interviewed two years ago, a project I fully
intend to re-visit some day. Here you go:
At long last, the short film is complete! I sent out the
first DVDs last week, and I'll be sending more this week.
It's exciting!
The film's called I Will Possess Your Heart, and it's a
7-minute short based on a feature I wrote last winter. The
film stars Rich Sommer and Samii Ryan and features an amazing
supporting cast of Katy Beal, Katie Rayle, and Julian Rozzell
Jr. Chilembwe Mason makes a cameo and Greg Foro appears
reprising his role as Dick from Motel Room.
The film was shot in fantastic black and white by Bill
Winters in the amazing warehouse district of Bush Terminal,
Brooklyn. The huge, towering, industrial structures
surrounding the interaction between the two main characters
Cliff and Sherry brought an amazing sense of mystery to the
film, as if a dark, secret adventure was watching them
through each shuttered window and padlocked door. The film
is a love story, but it's as if the entire environment is
working to prevent any kind of intimacy from developing,
instead hoping the characters become as separate and lonely
as the abandoned warehouses past which they walk.
If you're interested in learning more, check out the
feature film website, which has information on the short
film, as well as lots of amazing images: www.iwillpossessyourheart.net.
More shooting with Matt Carlson for his upcoming project!
Today Jim Chan and I shot Matt's interview with actor Michael
Stuhlbarg. We shot the interview at one of the theater's at
NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Matt's Alma Mater (and mine,
by the way). A few image teasers:
Also, perhaps partially based on my needling, Matt has
started a blog recording the project's progress. Click to
check it out: http://weoutranthesun.wordpress.com/
Lots of shooting this past week! I'm shooting video
backdrops for a new performance piece by Matt Carlson, so the
two of us have been traipsing through the hinterland looking
for shots that fit with the themes of his performance. I've
also been shooting some stills in an effort to convince him
to make a blog about the creation of his work, and to show
off all of our journeys. So far:
More website fun, and taking lots of pictures in the
sometimes sunny springtime. It's raining today.
I'm going to be working on something really exciting soon,
a brand new project, nothing like I've worked on before. The
first shoot day is this Thursday, and I'm going to be shooting
for the first time with a DSLR, which is all the rage lately.
However, I have noticed that there's a new rage every few
years (DVX100, CineAlta, Red, etc.) and each seems to fade
away as soon as it arrives. I took a trip last week out to the
Museum of Modern Art's film preservation archive in
Pennsylvania, and they haven't yet made the leap to digital
preservation because there's no proven storage medium for the
files. Of course not, because every format only lasts for about
3 years, which is a century short of 35mm, give or take a couple
decades. They have nitrate film there with crystal-clear images
that were created over 100 years ago, and for most of that time
preservation wasn't even a thought much less a priority. At
least DSLR is a step in the right direction...away from video
and back to creating the best image possible.
I received an email today telling me that my DVD is in
the mail! I ordered the cases separately, so I should have
everything by this time next week, which is very exciting.
I'm also continuing with the new website design, which will
be unveiled soon. Everything is getting so close to being
finished, I'll have to start something new! Of course there's
always writing to turn to...we'll see if I have any new ideas
any time soon...
There's so much going on I don't know where to begin!
I've been so busy wrapping things up with the new short film,
which will be on DVD very soon! I've also been working on
some new web stuff that I'll be able to report soon.
But for now, the best I have is that Puzzled is now on
Vimeo! I haven't embedded it on the Puzzled page of
www.preginning.com yet, so you'll have to click over to my
Vimeo page to watch it. Here's the link:
To quickly follow up on what I was writing last Tuesday,
Nathan DuPree: The Preginning is now on Vimeo, along with
Nathan DuPree and Motel Room. To watch, go to http://www.preginning.com/preginning.html.
Editing of the new short film is now officially complete!
And to think it only took two short months! The film looks
and sounds great and will be unveiled soon...along with
something on the web, we'll have to wait and see. It's really
just been seven months since I had the epiphany to make a
short film at all, so to me things have been moving right
along.
Also, I really shouldn't say anything, but Jim Vidal just
gave me a DVD-ROM filled with photos from the December short
film shoot, none of which I've seen yet much less decided to
share, which is why I shouldn't have said anything, but it's
so exciting! It was a totally unexpected surprise.
I am sick at home today, delaying what may well be my
last editing session for the new short film. It's amazing to
think how quickly the gap between "I'll never finish!" and "I
can't believe it's over; I miss it so!" is bridged. And
nothing's forever, right, I mean I "finished" Motel Room in
2005 and I just made a few editorial changes last month!
Nathan DuPree is now on Vimeo, step 2 in my new migration
to whatever Vimeo shows video in instead of the quicktime
I've been using since I got a Mac. I've imbedded it HERE! From there you can click
to the page on Vimeo, if you are so inclined.
Nathan DuPree: The Preginning is not yet on Vimeo,
however, and not just because I have a free account and can
really only upload one video per week. It's also that the film
is so long that I can't get it under 500MB, which it the Vimeo
max. Well, I'll be trying everything and hopefully have it
ready by Friday, when I get another 500 MB to work with!
I'm back after taking last week off from updating, and I
have some very exciting news. After much prodding, I've
finally created a page on Vimeo, and Motel Room is on it in
HD! I've also embedded the Vimeo video on Motel Room's page
on www.preginning.com. Check for more new stuff as I start
migrating all the media on this site from quicktime, starting
with the Motel Room Dream Sequence next week, when my account
refreshes!
Motel Room's screening this past Saturday was a rousing
success! I ended up screening on DVD (as pessimistically
predicted), but I was still satisfied with the visuals. I
wish I had some pictures of the event to post here, but I
don't.
Today I was back in the editing room, despite the
torrential rains that threatened to wash me away as I walked
the streets of Soho. Never fear, however, as it turns out,
G-drives CAN get wet.
Editing is going well, as I now alternate between
smoothing out a single sound edit and adjusting
microscopically the color timing of one shot. But I enjoy
the tediousness (in fact I refer to it as "exactitude"). I
also have some foley footsteps to record, but, since I don't
have a studio, I don't know how that's going to work. Also,
if I didn't mention it, the whole world it sopping wet.
Motel Room is now HD! Now, I know what you're thinking,
because Motel Room was shot in HD, and therefore was in HD
all along. Not true, unless of course you're referring to the
four HDCAM tapes that have been sitting on my shelf for the
past 6+ years.
In any case, thanks to the generous assistance of none
other than Jim Vidal, I am now in possession of magnificent
HD quicktime files, armed and ready to re-complete the first
film made by Group Eight Films LLC.
This is all just in time for the upcoming OPIBAS
Artist Showcase 2010. Motel Room will be playing in all
its HD glory! Unless that doesn't work, and then it'll be on
DVD.
Editing and more editing! The picture is very close to
being locked, which unfortunately ends most of the fun. Not
that editing sound isn't fun...really. It's just a bit more,
well, let's say, subtle. More of a long-term satisfaction
rather than the instant gratification of making a really
slamming cut.
Lots of other things to think about, and since the word
of the day is "sound," going into the world and finding
sounds is nearing the top of the list. Not that I need much,
but I like recording original sound effects when I can.
Which is not that often, by the way.
I spent the day watching the rough cut with DP
extraordinaire Bill Winters. As I mentioned before, Bill
recently climbed Mt. Kilmanjaro as part of a mission to bring
awareness to the lack of clean water in Africa. Check it out
on the cause's strangely incomprehensible website. You
can also read about it the Westchester local Harrison Report.
In other Bill Winters news, during the recent East Coast
blizzard he went out, took a walk through his neighborhood,
and made a film so good it should be illegal. If you can't
see the embedded version below, here's the LINK.
More full-speed editing is in progress this week. I know
I've been talking about it for years, but there is something
amazing about seeing all of the pieces finally come together
in the editing room. Also, in the editing room it never
rains, and there's usually snacks.
After a huge delay, editing has finally begun! It's going
well. Everything looks amazing. I have no complaints, but I
hope I will have more to say soon. It's exciting!
At long last, after almost 7 1/2 years of living on my
AT&T Worldnet dial-up account web space, www.preginning.com
now, finally, actually lives at www.preginning.com. It's sad,
almost.
In other news, Motel Room is scheduled to be part of
the OPIBAS
Artist Showcase 2010, which is taking place on March 27.
I will have more details as they come to me, but for now you
can check out the blog and learn all about the other artists
participating in this exciting multimedia event! Click HERE!
Since I've been spending the last week waiting to hear
about my film transfer, I've been spending time doing a
little bit of graphic design. I've only made two print
projects myself: the recent Cannes Puzzled postcard and the
Nathan DuPree: The Preginning festival brochure.
Unfortunately, I can't find the brochure files anywhere, even
though I was pretty sure I had finally succeeded in
consolidating all of my past images and documents onto my
current computer. I guess there's always some reason to break
out the 3-inch floppies and whatever's left of my DOS
knowledge. "c:\" anyone?
In case you forgot what the Puzzled postcard looked
like:
Two quick bits of news: First, I checked again and I was
wrong on Tuesday, as Tuesday's update was number 333 and this
is 334. I'm more than a third of the way to 1000 news
updates!
Second, I will not be going to Barcelona as Mofilm
announced their winners and our commercial was not among
them. There's still time for me and Jim Chan to win an
awesome digital camera, however! Check out the winners HERE!
There are several changes coming up soon that all relate
to the extinction of my long time email account through AT&T
Worldnet dial-up internet, the most significant of which will
be the moving of this website to actual, grown-up web space
(from the small space that came free with the dial-up account
I created in 1999 and have maintained ever since), so
www.preginning.com will now be more than just a forwarding
address, which it's been since I got it from Yahoo, I don't
even remember how long ago. Also, all of the images that have
been seen on this news page on preginning.livejournal.com
will be going away. I'll replace what I can, but at last
count this was the 332nd news update, so I may not get to all
of it.
In other, slightly less frustrating news, I finally put
in for a telecine of my short film, so after a slight
two-month delay I will finally start editing soon! Also I'm
looking forward to making a second commercial with Jim Chan,
although the results are not in yet for the first one, which
may yet be a prize-winner! The downside of winning a prize
will be that we'll no longer be able to say that we've "never
won anything in our whole lives," which probably isn't true
in the first place. Come to think of it, I think I did win a
poster from a radio station about 15 years ago.
The commercial that Jim Chan and I made is complete! Last
week we finished it together and uploaded it to MoFilm, a
website that's administering the contest that we're trying to
win. First prize is a trip to Barcelona! Our commercial is
called Massage from Home. After Jim submitted the final
product, this is what Ken at MoFilm had to say about our
submission:
Hi Jim
Thank you for your recent film submission to Samsung in
Barcelona.
We have reviewed Message from Home and were very impressed
with both your idea and its execution, and feel sure that
Samsung will also be impressed.
As part of our review process we try to use our experience
from previous competitions to help filmmakers with what we
hope are constructive comments and suggestions that may help
when it comes to the Judging!
In this case we are unable to offer anything that we
genuinely feel might benefit your submission - so very well
done!!
We do really appreciate all the time and effort you have
put in to make your submission and wish you the very best of
luck with the competition.
Although my short film is still in a holding pattern,
I've tried to keep busy doing other things. Also, the more
distance I put between myself and the film I thik will be
beneficial when I actually sit down to edit. Which will be
soon. No, really.
In other news, I directed a commercial this past Friday.
It was actually a blast: producer Jim Chan, whom I know
because he's producing Kelvin Bias's film Noctambulous, came
up with a plan to make a spec commercial about two weeks ago
and everything came together for us to shoot on Friday. And
we were lucky enough to work with the spectacular Sarah
Sanders.
We shot first in my apartment, then grabbed a quick
insert shot on the subway, and finally went over to
Metrotech in downtown Brooklyn and got one shot outside. Jim
did most of the camerwork, but I convinced him to let me do
some when we were inside! It should be all finished by next
week so I'll be sure to post the link here when it's up!
This past Saturday evening I attended a fundraiser for
Kelvin Bias's film Noctambulous, which is a feature
psycho-horror film that I helped shoot throughout this past
fall. There's a trailer up at www.noctambulous.com.
In addition, Chilembwe Mason's film Escape, which is a
short shot in 2009 that is nearly complete, screened at the
party to a very positive reception. Check out the trailer HERE.
I was also lucky enough to get into photos with two of
Escape's stars: Julian Rozzel Jr, who also acted in both
Noctambulous and my recent short that we shot last month,
and the lovely Tatyana Lopez:
Sooo...I guess I've been complaining about the cold
recently, and I've been excited that the thermomometer
cracked 40 this past week for the first time in a while, and
I've been spending most of my time indoors. I point this out
in order to illustrate a contrast between this and the recent
activities of cinematographer Bill Winters, who just climbed
Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, reaching the peak this past
Thursday. From his blog:
I can't verify, but based on this photo, he looks colder
than me, although he certainly has more modern outerwear. But
for Bill, this is just another day at the office as this is a
job for the clean water activist website Summit on
the Summit, which may be the most complex website I've
ever seen. Looks great, though!
Well, it's that time of year again! That time of year
when everyone who's anyone heads to Utah for festival season!
Of course there's Sundance, but there's also lots of other
'Dances as well. Or so I've been told. I've never been.
In any case, the big news is that the great Sean Carter's
new short film, Culebra, will be shown at Slamdance! This is
a big deal, and hopefully Sean will send or post some
pictures as I'm sure it will be a blast. The film is an
action/horror film featuring cinematography by the one and
only Bill Winters. To check out Sean's movie's page on the
Slamdance website, click HERE.
Now that 2010 is fully underway, I've immersed myself in
post-production! I feel like ever since starting this news
page in February 2003 I've been complaining about the
helpless feeling I get when embarking on the nebulous,
ill-defined journey of post-production. As much preparation
as I try to do every time, I always, at least somewhat, fall
into the trap of "thank heavens we got that shot, that was a
bit of a miracle!", and perhaps plan a little bit
insufficiently for post-production. But the upside of this is
that there's plenty of time to correct any past mistakes
because there's no strict deadline. Come to think of it,
that's probably also the downside.
In any case, I have one more major step to do with the
16mm film before I've caught up to the alternate universe
version of myself who shot the movie in HD, and that is the
telecine! I'm not sure if anyone uses the word telecine any
more, as it down have a bit of an "earth intruders" ring to
it, but at some point I have to jump off the cliff of lingo
and just pretend that I know what I'm talking about. But once
this final bridge is crossed, final in that it's the last
major step before it's really all up to me and my Mac and
several sleepless nights and perhaps a pop song or two if I
get desperate, I will be on my own and off to the races! Well
at least I'll have something real to fret about, instead of
the nightmares I've been having even though I've not yet seen
the footage, "Oh, no! This will never cut together with
that!"
I'm celebrating the new year by once again sprucing up
this site (starting with the FRONT
PAGE). I haven't yet decided how to make this news page
fit in with the new look, so for now I'm just keeping things
the way they are. I do have a new icon, however, as a teaser
for my new short film that will be finished in the coming
months...!
Oh, and I've never embedded a YouTube video before, but
there's no time like the present. And it's not even really a
video...
