Categories
Truly Free Film

The Dilemma And Contradiction Of Taking Time

Where does good work come from? Just because you can say something, doesn’t mean that you should. Stewing on an idea does not mean that it will have more flavor.  We are told to go, go, go, but when is slow actually the fastest route?

Categories
Issues and Actions My Films

Read Some Excerpts From My New Book

I know what you are thinking. You are wondering “why should I go buy a book when I can just download a movie illegally for free?” right?  Well there is a price to pay for everything.  One of the reasons I wrote this book is to advance and preserve the film art and culture that I love — and that other option certainly does not do that! I wrote the book “Hope For Film” (with Anthony Kaufman) because I wanted to share some of the many lessons I have learned producing indie film.

Two recent excerpts give you

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

We Fall Short, But So What. Just Keep Working.

Need some inspiration? A kick in the pants? Did the piece you worked so hard on not turn out so great?
We all go through this. There is a solution.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Closing My Book And Opening Another

Last week, I greatly enjoyed my first three days on the job at Fandor– and anticipating all the ones still to come.  It’s funny how timing works sometimes…  It couldn’t be a better time for me to learn and engage in something new. And it’s remarkable how sometimes somethings end, just as something new begins.  Such changes and coordination need so much support, it is a marvel that so much still gets done.

Ten years ago,

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Brainstorming A Good Idea With A Couple Of Chums

” in 1978, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and the screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan worked through an idea…”

If you weren’t in the room, here’s your chance to read how it was done.

Categories
Truly Free Film

There’s Nothing More Important Than The Third Act

By Scott Meek

On this coming Sunday, forty years ago, Scott Meek took his first job in the film business.  I recently asked him if he had any lessons or advice he could share.

There is nothing more important than the third act as it’s the third act that carries the momentum of everything that preceded it, that allows the sum to be greater than the parts, creates the meaning and offers the truest emotion.

If I have learned that films work this way and I still believe in the truest possibility of film and of art, then I should also have learned that all of us have three acts too, and that there we have a great responsibility to ourselves to make the third act meaningful by making it truly ours.

It’s the act that is entirely owned by character.

Categories
These Are Those Things

May We All Have Someone To Grow Up With

40 years ago today, Bruce Springsteen was playing Max’s Kansas City. Someone filmed it for all of us. I am so thankful that I have had Bruce to help guide & inspire me all these years. It’s incredible how he has helped shape my dreams and ambitions, reinforce my values and commitment.