Desert Highs and Lows
The desert is an odd, odd place. I've spent the last few weeks (one at Dumont Dunes, two at Sable Ranch in Canyon Country) dealing with the strange realities of the desert environment. Very few places in the world exsist where your day starts with frost on the ground, peaks with you sweating in short sleeves at mid-day, and ends with you wrapped back up like an eskimo to fight the 30 degree cold and wind.
In a sad and all too sermon writing 101 sort of way, that's been my life the last few months. I know I've been off the radar a bit... and I'm sorry. It's just that every time I open up this browser and start writing, I stop for some reason, or never really get started. I'm just not sure what to put down...
So anyway, here I am, trying to update things a bit... let's start with some cool stuff that 2007 has given me already -
The Waitress was the little darling of the Sundance Film Festival, it was purchased for $4 million dollars and is getting a theatrical release sometime this year! (on the down side, I really wish I could have gone to Park City for all the premieres and parties)
HONOR is coming to DVD at the end of this month... I can't wait to see Nick in all those fight scenes... Long Live Roddy Piper!
I got to work with Kal Penn again on Two Sisters, a TV movie directed by Margaret Cho... we had a great time talking about how crazy Vegas was... can you believe it was two years ago? geesh.
Alone With Her opened in New York, it hasn't opened in LA yet, but it's been getting really good reviews, which is kinda cool for a movie that we shot in the producer's backyard.
I'm going to a screening of THE LIST (formerly I'mPerfect) on Monday and while they still owe me a couple thousand dollars that I was never paid, it'll be nice to screen my first movie as a 2nd AD.
My pal, Chris Pine, from Carriers, was one of the Tremor Brothers in SMOKIN' ACES, which I enjoyed. It was cool to see Chris do what he does, it makes me all the more confident that Carriers is going to be a decent flick.
One of my best buds, and often Boss Joe Suarez directed his first music video for a band called Twilight Sleep. We ran a bull through downtown LA and blew up a phone booth...pretty great, huh? I'm really proud of Joe, he's inspired me to get my ass in gear.
My amazing girlfriend Elizabeth is now the VP of Kadakowa Pictures, USA... which I think is fairly awesome. Her episode of Masters of Horror aired last week and is really good. It's called Dream Cruise.
I'm currently working on SANDS OF OBLIVION with a few of the actors from Firefly, which makes my little nerd heart jump. It's fun, I got a promotion, and I'll be done next week... all good things.
So on to the lows...
I've been really, really down of late... wondering where my life is headed and what I'm doing with myself. Mostly irrational fears and worries, but I've been swimming in a general amount of unease and apathy since the start of the year that is just now starting to clear up.
I hate money, in all forms, that's all I'm going to say about that.
Elizabeth's promotion came with the downside of several firings and quitings at her job....it's made her a little tense and really tired. This means that we've both been pretty moody lately, which in turn means that while our relationship is awesome, we both are going through crap personally, which eventually starts to bleed on the relationship. This is largely my fault for being unable to pull my head out of my ass and I'm grateful that she is such a loving and understanding girlfriend.
*Random High in the Lows - the lady and I have a pretty awesome V-day weekend planned for the two of us... I'm really excited.
Watching some of my friends, including the aforementioned Mr. Suarez, get their projects going and succeed has had the inverse effect of making me feel like I'll never get my things in order to do the same...
I had an interview with National Treasure 2 today... it was a really humbling experience. I had gone in with all these grandiose notions that I was some sort of hot shot AD, on his way to getting in the DGA, and that anyone would love to have me on their movie (this is partially true, but I was starting to get a little full of myself). I got referred to the job by a friend but in the back of my head was like "do I really want to go back to doing PA work." I mulled over the thing for awhile (do I want to be on a show that long? do I want to be out of town...), but decided to go in for the interview anyway.
The interview went really well...I had gotten a lot of good recommendations from my references, they were impressed that I was so young and had done so much AD work, everything was friendly and cool...but...BUT...I don't know if I should have re-ordered my resume for bigger studio people (as opposed to the little indie producer's I usually work for) or put on some of the things like West Wing, which even though I only did serveral episodes of would have looked good...but yeah.
The first time I got nervous was when the 1st AD Geoff said "there's alot of credits on your resume, but I haven't heard of any of these movies, producers, or ADs"...great...I quickly pointed out Geisha and then proceeded to hide behind it for the rest of the interview.
The short and long of it was that while seemed to like me and acknowledged that I've been an AD for awhile, they pointed out that I haven't really done that many high profile shows with HUGE background days *cough: geisha* and that if I was that close to getting in the DGA, I really should get some more experience with big shows or I'd get stuck working in the "indie world" for the rest of my career. Don't get me wrong they were super nice, but Geoff kept saying "don't get me wrong..." and "this isn't a put-down or anything"... it was just a little humbling.
I went in thinking "do I really want to PA a whole movie?" and left with them saying "well, we'll definately try to get you one for a couple of days..." which means that the interview was a success, in alot of ways I suppose, but probably more significantly in the fact the it reminded me of just where I really am on the food chain.
What does this all mean? What's next for this year? I'm not really sure... but I am going to where lots of layers...and as long as I have my goggles, my boots, and my bandana, I'll hopefully be ready to weather anything that the desert throws at me...
I love and miss you guys...
J
In a sad and all too sermon writing 101 sort of way, that's been my life the last few months. I know I've been off the radar a bit... and I'm sorry. It's just that every time I open up this browser and start writing, I stop for some reason, or never really get started. I'm just not sure what to put down...
So anyway, here I am, trying to update things a bit... let's start with some cool stuff that 2007 has given me already -
The Waitress was the little darling of the Sundance Film Festival, it was purchased for $4 million dollars and is getting a theatrical release sometime this year! (on the down side, I really wish I could have gone to Park City for all the premieres and parties)
HONOR is coming to DVD at the end of this month... I can't wait to see Nick in all those fight scenes... Long Live Roddy Piper!
I got to work with Kal Penn again on Two Sisters, a TV movie directed by Margaret Cho... we had a great time talking about how crazy Vegas was... can you believe it was two years ago? geesh.
Alone With Her opened in New York, it hasn't opened in LA yet, but it's been getting really good reviews, which is kinda cool for a movie that we shot in the producer's backyard.
I'm going to a screening of THE LIST (formerly I'mPerfect) on Monday and while they still owe me a couple thousand dollars that I was never paid, it'll be nice to screen my first movie as a 2nd AD.
My pal, Chris Pine, from Carriers, was one of the Tremor Brothers in SMOKIN' ACES, which I enjoyed. It was cool to see Chris do what he does, it makes me all the more confident that Carriers is going to be a decent flick.
One of my best buds, and often Boss Joe Suarez directed his first music video for a band called Twilight Sleep. We ran a bull through downtown LA and blew up a phone booth...pretty great, huh? I'm really proud of Joe, he's inspired me to get my ass in gear.
My amazing girlfriend Elizabeth is now the VP of Kadakowa Pictures, USA... which I think is fairly awesome. Her episode of Masters of Horror aired last week and is really good. It's called Dream Cruise.
I'm currently working on SANDS OF OBLIVION with a few of the actors from Firefly, which makes my little nerd heart jump. It's fun, I got a promotion, and I'll be done next week... all good things.
So on to the lows...
I've been really, really down of late... wondering where my life is headed and what I'm doing with myself. Mostly irrational fears and worries, but I've been swimming in a general amount of unease and apathy since the start of the year that is just now starting to clear up.
I hate money, in all forms, that's all I'm going to say about that.
Elizabeth's promotion came with the downside of several firings and quitings at her job....it's made her a little tense and really tired. This means that we've both been pretty moody lately, which in turn means that while our relationship is awesome, we both are going through crap personally, which eventually starts to bleed on the relationship. This is largely my fault for being unable to pull my head out of my ass and I'm grateful that she is such a loving and understanding girlfriend.
*Random High in the Lows - the lady and I have a pretty awesome V-day weekend planned for the two of us... I'm really excited.
Watching some of my friends, including the aforementioned Mr. Suarez, get their projects going and succeed has had the inverse effect of making me feel like I'll never get my things in order to do the same...
I had an interview with National Treasure 2 today... it was a really humbling experience. I had gone in with all these grandiose notions that I was some sort of hot shot AD, on his way to getting in the DGA, and that anyone would love to have me on their movie (this is partially true, but I was starting to get a little full of myself). I got referred to the job by a friend but in the back of my head was like "do I really want to go back to doing PA work." I mulled over the thing for awhile (do I want to be on a show that long? do I want to be out of town...), but decided to go in for the interview anyway.
The interview went really well...I had gotten a lot of good recommendations from my references, they were impressed that I was so young and had done so much AD work, everything was friendly and cool...but...BUT...I don't know if I should have re-ordered my resume for bigger studio people (as opposed to the little indie producer's I usually work for) or put on some of the things like West Wing, which even though I only did serveral episodes of would have looked good...but yeah.
The first time I got nervous was when the 1st AD Geoff said "there's alot of credits on your resume, but I haven't heard of any of these movies, producers, or ADs"...great...I quickly pointed out Geisha and then proceeded to hide behind it for the rest of the interview.
The short and long of it was that while seemed to like me and acknowledged that I've been an AD for awhile, they pointed out that I haven't really done that many high profile shows with HUGE background days *cough: geisha* and that if I was that close to getting in the DGA, I really should get some more experience with big shows or I'd get stuck working in the "indie world" for the rest of my career. Don't get me wrong they were super nice, but Geoff kept saying "don't get me wrong..." and "this isn't a put-down or anything"... it was just a little humbling.
I went in thinking "do I really want to PA a whole movie?" and left with them saying "well, we'll definately try to get you one for a couple of days..." which means that the interview was a success, in alot of ways I suppose, but probably more significantly in the fact the it reminded me of just where I really am on the food chain.
What does this all mean? What's next for this year? I'm not really sure... but I am going to where lots of layers...and as long as I have my goggles, my boots, and my bandana, I'll hopefully be ready to weather anything that the desert throws at me...
I love and miss you guys...
J