even by my standards, this post is meandering
Walked and maxed downtown, saw Man on Wire today, against my better judgment (not only did I spend $10 on it, but I remembered after paying that I have a freaking free pass in my damn wallet... well, next time). It's good. Rarely is there a documentary you want to see on the big screen, but for the effects of all that crazy highwire stuff, all the heights, this is one to see big.
Spent most of the afternoon and evening wandering downtown alone, stopping for iced tea and moleskine scribblings. Do I have a story yet? Not at all. I came up with some more solid imagery, though, and maybe a set-up. What I'm missing is what I keep calling the short film's "knock-down." All over this moleskine I claim to myself that a short film needs nothing more than a set up and a knock down. Almost a punchline. Well, I'm getting there. But I'm at that awkward phase where I'm still not convinced that what I've got is a good idea. This is a common hump for me with these sketchpad films; it panned out for Love is Suicide and 1000 Pieces (and, arguably, for Avalanche and Short Film), but failed fairly miserably for others, like the Morse Code idea I later integrated into The World of Missing Persons and the Marvin/Petra story whose failure led to Open.
Thought about retooling the Naked Story; thought about setting up as improv the Dead Bird story. Wish I could shoot Missing Persons and the Sci-Fi story and even the ill-named Minus, but those would involve some serious preproduction -- locations, budgets, shooting schedules, full cast and crew. Those aren't potential one-day ideas. Basically, I've been revisiting all my other potential short film ideas and considering how I could make them happen, and if not can I scavenge anything for #6? So far, the above-named ones remain intact and unpillaged. Just in case.
Watching Last Year in Marienbad. Love this crazy shit. Watched Linklater's Tape last night, written by the writer/director of Management (the first time I've actually been intrigued/curious about Management). It's really good in an obviously-a-play-on-film kind of way. Both Marienbad and Tape have one thing in common: an obsession with the unreliability of memory (as does the Naked Story, which was my first written response to Harold Pinter's plays). That's one theme I've considered for #6, but I'm trying to find a story I can tell in a single day of production... tricky.
And: I've officially asked Myrrh to try re-scoring Bathwater. I feel bad, it's nothing against Josh but the more I sit on the (unfinished) score he worked on for me, the more I feel it's the wrong direction for the film after all, and since it's unfinished and Josh is busy and Myrrh once said he was eager to try, I decided to go a different direction. I think it's for the best, but I feel like Josh might take it personally.
Tomorrow, Laika again. Taperoom all week. Mornings suck! But the job otherwise is cool.
That is all. Good night.