where in the journey am I?

The hero's journey is something that every writer knows. It's the basic construct of much literature and film. Some might deride the 'structure' and 'pat-ness' of it, but it works. It's the real deal.

Lately, to keep a sense of humor about things, I've been applying this monomyth to my life. Just to keep sane as things were going a bit haywire.

Here's the rub to doing that: I thought I hit the 'Supreme Ordeal' last month when the movie was put on hold. This past week, I found that was just a little bump, one of the 'tests' that the hero must pass; mere preludes.

What I'm going through now... This, I hope, is the Supreme Ordeal. If not, I'm in for a serious bruising.

Unfortunately, the ordeal is not movie making related, it's not 'creative energy' related.

It is relationship related. It's the sort of ordeal that lays its blanket of pain, fear, anger and upset over every aspect of life.

Please forgive the nebulosity, it's a form of self-protection.

Stop walking and get back to writing

It looks like the writers that have been getting all that great exercise strolling around the studios may be able to get back to sitting in front of their computers for inordinate amounts of time.

The WGA is putting their tentative agreement out there this weekend for the rank and file to vote on. Most people are guessing that the WGA strike will come to an end of sorts, which is great news. However, it's not the be-all end-all yet. For Television writers, it is good news but for people like, oh… myself… it isn't the end of worries.

The hope is that now when the writers and directors get the contracts they like, SAG will quickly get one. However, until that actually happens, not a lot of movies are going to get the greenlight.

Hopefully the dissension within the actors unions isn't a harbinger of things to come. Currently AFTRA (yet another union – for actors) has started negotiating on their own. SAG hasn't started yet.

    LA TIMES
    Feb 4, 2008 by Richard Verrier

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has made good on its threat to break ranks with its more powerful sister union, the Screen Actors Guild.

AFTRA's board of directors voted Saturday to separately negotiate its upcoming prime-time television contract with the major studios -- without SAG at the bargaining table.

The decision effectively ends a 27-year partnership between the two unions under which they had jointly negotiated film and prime-time TV contracts. It also could complicate key upcoming negotiations for actors, whose contract expires June 30, potentially allowing the studios to play off one union against the other.

 

While this hasn't been big news yet for the public, this is the thing that is concerning a lot of movie people – even more than the WGA strike. Hopefully it will all settle down quickly.

 

Anyway, at least today, things seem to be looking up in a very broad sense.

 

Poof…

Pre-strike worries:

1. Concern that the WGA strike will continue, thus strengthening the actor guild's (SAG) resolve and precipitating them to strike in June. Thus, any movie that has SAG actors that is not wrapped by June faces a walk off.
2. A crappy but realistic concern for not making a movie.
3. A demoralizing kick in the gut.
   
   

Should I only blog when things are good?

Stay on message and all?

I have a friend who does that. No matter what, he's always spinning things into 'really big things are happening'. It's tiring to always hear "the press release" rather than straight-forward truth. It's a show-business thing but man, everyone knows he's 'B.S.ing'.

Well, I'm not up for that today, so screw it. I'll be honest, there are ups and there are downs. Today is a down. The project in its present incarnation just became a casualty of pre-strike worries. That means, rather than push ahead on pre-production, the potential producer decided to wait a couple of months and see. See – as in See ya later.

I've been aware of this very real concern since September, but somehow hoped to avoid it. All the fifteen+ hour days were in hope that we could get rolling in time.

Poof.

So – as I look at the re-write in progress, cursor blinking patiently… what now?

A New Year

Happy belated New Year to you, faithful reader.

Holidays were good, though the travel was really terrible this year. Worst air travel experiences for me in all the miles I've logged, thus far.
Rather than gripe about the annoyances, I'll mention a bright spot that would not have occurred were it not for a cancelled flight in Denver: If you ever find yourself at the Renaissance Hotel in Denver, Colorado – be sure to go to the hotel restaurant and get the Baby Greens salad and the Lamb entree (can't remember the exact name). If you like your meat rare, definitely get it as rare as they can legally make it. I predict the chef of that restaurant is destined for big things. The meal ranked with some of the best I've had anywhere in the world. Really.

Since returning to Los Angeles from Pennsylvania, where I spent the holidays, I've been re-working (I'll call this version 25.01.22.03 rev 3.5) the story. Having pushed the boulder to the top of the mountain yet again, I'm now awaiting some feedback from my most trusted reader, M. If I get the go ahead from her, I will send it off to the 'theoretically potential producer'. If I hear "go" from him, I'll crank away on the actual screenplay. Overall, it's not quite a page one rewrite, but it is significant enough to make the shoulders slump once again. Of course, my deepest fear now is to get a "Nah, I don't think this is gonna work out" response. No matter what, I will push forward hard in the next couple weeks. There are several other entities expressing interest in the project, and I don't want to leave anyone waiting. It really is amazing how effective the pre-viz has been overall. People and companies that I have never gotten response from have been getting back to me quickly – reinforcing the old adage that, in Hollywood, nobody likes to read.

New Year's resolution? Yup, I've got two. I'm keeping them small, which gives them more likelihood of a long life.

Good luck with yours.

Budgeting and Scheduling

I've spent the last week working on a script breakdown of The Diamond Chasers and now I'm creating and fine tuning an actual budget. I'm also gearing up to rewrite the script based on notes I'm awaiting. All of which mean, I suppose I'm in pre-production. It's a tenuous time because – ah heck, it's filmmaking -- the whole nature of the animal is tenuous. Anyway, budgeting this movie is daunting. Unlike The Last Broadcast, which I basically made out of pocket, and Ghosts of Edendale which was made with plastic and foreign promises, The Diamond Chasers is quite a bit bigger. So, of course, the much larger pile of money that will be spent is partially dependent upon the actors, who are partially dependent upon any number of things, including which way the wind blows.

The budget being bandied about is also quite modest – not really 'action movie' money. It means that I'll have to pull in the belt and think very creatively. So be it, I'm certainly one of the most qualified directors ever for that job.

Anyway, there is something mildly exciting about this point because it is forward motion to the project. For the moment, I better not detail any more lest I thoroughly jinx things. I'll just put it this way -- Outlook is hopeful. Hey, I even had new business cards made. That may not seem important except that I've never made a movie specific business card unless the movie was relatively close to rolling…

Hopefully The Diamond Chasers will follow in that tradition. It's a project that has been around in one way or another for many years. It's high time to get the thing into the air.

Anyone have a good price for a 48''x30' rubber belt conveyor? Preferably located in the Midwest?

Back in the U.S.S…A.

Yeah, that's lame… but… ah… whatever.

I'm back from my trip to Russia and Finland. Wow. Just Wow.

Experiences and overall impressions are created by a series of the smallest things. A small issue at an airport, perhaps a rude person on a street curb, or maybe a less than stellar meal – and you can HATE the place to which you went. It's not that the overall experience was bad, but it just sits funny in your throat when people ask you about it. Conversely, a good meal, a friendly or helpful person guiding you somewhere… a few positive small things, and you remember a place fondly.

When every single instance of a journey is perfect, it's rare. In fact, it's a bit unnerving. Well, I just got back from one of those perfect journeys; from St. Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland.

Wow, just wow.

Rather than immediately go into the details of the places I visited and things I saw, I will only write now that – if possible, the way to see a country is to stay with a family. If you are given the choice between a five star hotel or a small bedroom in a family's house, don't hesitate – stay with the family. You get a chance to experience the country in a way that simply isn't possible in any other way. Tours are great, but they are an insular world and not necessarily the real country one is visiting. And if one gets to stay with a really great family, then the experience is one that will be remembered and cherished forever. Such was my recent experience in Russia and Finland. Besides seeing all the incredible sights of the cultural wonderland currently called St. Petersburg, I also got to experience the people somewhat. I had a chance to go into the supermarkets, the stores, ride in the cars and walk some streets not on the obvious maps. I had a chance to talk politics with normal people. By the way – They LOVE Putin. That's not propaganda.

I will, most likely, create several web pages devoted to this trip – but for now this blog entry is strictly to say Thank you to the Ruchkin family – Sasha, Helena, Alexander and Dasha – who may or may not read this. Families like this are what reminds you what a great place the world is.

Once the dedicated pages are created (dutifully added to the list of things to do), I will direct you to them. Look forward to the hearing about the harrowing traffic, the nerve wrecking drive to the opera, impressions of St. Petersburg life and the art and the palaces – oh, the art and palaces.

Get out of Dodge

I've written a couple blog essays that I haven't published. It's just as easy to hit the 'draft' or 'delete' button as the publish button. It's something more people should do more often. I include myself in that bunch. This entry may deserve one of those buttons, but I'm putting something up to let people know I'm actually still getting in front of the computer.

Plenty has been happening in the last month, which may be one of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much. We're in the midst of AFM (The American Film Market) which has seemed quiet this year. A friend, in town with his movie, has been making some decent sales -- so I guess things are going alright in spite of the seeming lack of energy.

Elsewhere in town the Red flags are waving again, which is frightening. They indicate high winds – hot winds – dangerous winds. The danger of fire is still present even though more humidity is in the air and the temps have dropped. For the most part, the signs of the devastating fires of the past weeks are over where I live. The plainest sign of them was the air – skies that would turn Orange and Gray, and a haze over everything. Though There was only one day that was really bad, I have had a small cough for days and my throat feels similar to the 'day after a party'. Since there hasn't been a party most evenings before, I attribute it to the smoke that was once forests and homes.

The biggie now for many people in this town is the impending Writer's strike. It's going to come to pass and the feeling is that it's going to last a long time, that it will wipe a lot of people out – and ultimately, that writers will lose. It's a shame and the deregulation of the 80's, which has continued to run rampant to this day, is one of the big reasons it will be so difficult for writers to win. Huge multi-faceted corporations are hard to beat. Sony, et all, don't need to make movies to survive. It's a hell of a beast that's being fought, made worse by the fact that all the unions haven't banded together to fight at the same time. Over and over, people in the film business prove themselves as being their own worst enemies.

If one believes in residuals for artists, (which is a well established part of the pay equation) the fight is justified. It would be nice if the AMPTP weren't so greedy. But they are. And so – the strike will happen.

Seems a good time to get out of town for a bit, and coincidentally, that's just what I'm doing. In two days, I will be in Helsinki, Finland and then off to St. Petersburg, Russia. No computers, no internet, no cell phone, no nothing. It will be the first time since I had my first 2400 baud modem that I will be away from it all so completely. Wish me luck on that, and expect to see full postings of the journey when I return.

Best of luck to all that live and work in Los Angeles.

 

Writers with a ‘Sense of Foreboding’

Tell me about it. Tell any writer about it. If this is what you do for a living:

1. You are to be pitied.
   
2. You know damn well a sense of foreboding is hanging over your head every moment of the day.
   
   1. Will I have another good idea?
      
   2. Will I get paid?
      
   3. Will I eat?
      
   4. Will I get read?
      
   5. Will I get produced?
      
   6. Will my words get edited into a strange approximation of what I actually wrote?
      
   7. Will the critics rip me up?
      

Unfortunately, this sense of foreboding is about the WGA/AMPTP negotiations. A couple months ago my money was on 'no strike'. Now, I don't know. I think we're in for some lousy times. Heck, we're already there because most people are assuming that there will, in fact, be a strike; and the town has been in that mode for some time now.

The smart money in this town is betting on a strike-- Damn it! Because it doesn't matter if you're in the union or not, this is shutting down the town for the most part. It messes with the mindset of everyone, large or small.

Basically, I'm anti-union. Yes, the idea of a union is a good one but it's been so abused and I have seen unions screw things up so much, that I have a knee jerk response to them. Maybe it's because I am also a producer. In the case of the WGA, I am also not overly impressed by their abilities; not as a bargaining entity, and certainly not as an ethical business. That goes for all the guilds by the way, not just the WGA.

That disclaimer made: I hate to say it, but this strike, if that's what happens… has to happen. While the AMPTP did take their initial 'rollback' -- "oh, and *uck you" off the table (that was the one where they wanted to end residuals as they now exist), they are standing fast with the main issue, which is residuals for internet downloads etc. Yes there are other things thrown in for confusion, but that's the one this is all about.

And writers need to not bend on it. Everyone talks about how this is the future. Well scribes, I have news for you -- It's already here. My last movie made almost as much money with VOD as with DVD. It's a big secret that is being kept quiet by the Producers at this point. I know—I'm privy to all the business side of my movies. DVD's and other physical media are going the way of the DODO bird. Writers, jump on download residuals now or lose.

So this is why, with a heavy heart and very mixed feelings -- even though I hate unions and even though this is really screwing my projects up, I believe -- The Writers Guild has to stay firm.

Now, with that said, I'll get angry again. Why, why, why, can't these stupid guilds band together? You want to fight the man? Get together! Today, in the same story that mentioned the "sense of forboding", SAG (actors guild for those who don't know) said they wouldn't walk out with the Writers. Yes, they have their own negotiations coming up as do the directors – but why does everyone have to protect their precious hide so much?

Band together, you bastards, and do it right. Remember – United we stand?

To read the full LA TIMES story, click here.

 

Also, if you're a writer and you're not already aware of this Craig Mazin's blog, shame on you… and get over there now.

 

But is it art?

Some friends of mine returned from far-away lands. We hadn't seen them for a long time and just had a wonderful evening with them. Unexpected gifts from these far-away lands were an additional delight.

I must explain that these friends have impeccable tastes. But they also have a sense of humor which will sometimes manifest itself as a "comment" about 'taste' and "what is good". They can find charm and meaning in something with no artistic merits whatsoever; absolutely BAD can in itself, be art. Or they can trash what others would consider High-art. They may laud the taco wagon under the overpass or trash the five-star French Restaurant. The same goes for music, art exhibitions, etc. They themselves are serious artists – in many mediums - including culinary.

This may seem strange and excessive introduction, but is a necessary stage-set for the following.

One of the gifts they gave us was this…

At home, Marianne and I studied it, not entirely sure of what it was. Marianne thought it was perhaps a plaque to be hung somewhere - somehow.

I thought it was to be eaten. After all, it would be a horrible piece of 'art' to be hung anywhere. But if it was food, she wondered, why was it glued to the wood? And if it was food, why would it be on a plaque of wood, a piece of a log in fact, in the first place? I argued that the wood was presentation – that could be used as wished afterwards: A tiny cheese cutting block, or kindling on a cold winter night… the possibilities were quite varied. I didn't have an explanation for the glue.

The 'what is it?' was shrink-wrapped and labeled in the language of the far-away land from whence it was brought. Incidentally, I can read, write and speak this far-away language – thereby complicating the matter.

I read the label on the back, which was a list of ingredients. I could make out some of the ingredients: flour, sugar, food dye. Others, I couldn't translate quickly. All of these things were potentially food – or paste for an arts and crafts project. What I could also easily translate was a warning at the end of the ingredients: Not for children under 14. Hmm… dangerous?

The 'what is it?' sat on the kitchen counter for the day.
Later, while Marianne was running errands, I wandered into the kitchen, esoteric discussions of past floating about in my head. Is it art? What is art? Define Art? Cripes that's awful art. My friends have good taste – but they are witty and occasionally troublemakers. It could be a 'comment' about the whole nature of gift giving and trinkets from far away lands. I was in a quandary. Damn.

I pressed on the "pretzel" and the "sausage". They were malleable. The "Mustard" was hard as rock. All were solidly affixed to the scrap of log. This mystery was not revealing itself easily.

After mulling it over for several minutes, turning it this way and that, pressing gently, rereading the labels – wondering if I should hang it up in the kitchen above the spices, I did what any true art critic or meta-art critic or artist or any derivation of the whole tortured business would do.

I ate it.

When Marianne came home I mentioned to her what I had done. She looked at the cross section of the pretzel (and the sausage – I ate a piece of that too).

"I guess we're not hanging it up", she noted. She asked me what it tasted like. I wasn't sure. I had tasted it before, but I couldn't recall if it was when eating dessert at a high-end restaurant or when eating Play-Dough in first grade. Food group or Kitsch Art, there was less of it in either case. So Marianne did what any art critic, meta-critic, or any derivation of the whole tortured business would do.
She cut off a piece and ate it.

You can say this about us: We may not know art when we see it, but we know it when we eat it.

The plaque of pretzels, sausages and mustard was marzipan, of course. Thanks B, E&A. We love it!

Currently there is an exhibition of Cosima Von Bonin artwork at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a multimedia artist; he doesn't hang everything on the walls either. The museum is merely minutes away. We're thinking about going there for lunch.

It does look lovely between the spice racks.

WGA – Will they, won’t they? And where’s my damn money?

Fall – the weather is beautiful as is to be expected in Southern California. For the moment, I'm listening to Bach, sitting under the pergola with the laptop. A picture perfect moment.

While that sounds like a nice respite, it is in fact, incredibly inconvenient; a moment created because the internet is not working. I'm on a silly deadline to write something (a favor for a friend) that is due within a few days and has not yet been started. I'm expecting to do a few interviews for which information may or may not be awaiting; won't know till the internet comes back. Can't make a phone call on my landline cause it's voip. It's frightening how much I've come to rely on that umbilical cord. I suppose I could go to a local coffee shop with my cell phone and computer -- but that's simply uncivilized.

Onto Real issues that might actually interest someone:

The WGA has just re-elected the same board as before. A couple changes, but not many. I don't really have much thought on that, so I'll keep quiet. However, shortly after the elections, the WGA put a vote to its members – a permission to strike vote. That takes this town one step closer to the mess that always arises from strikes. The arguments for and against the vote are all with merit. Those that want a "YES" say that giving the board the power to initiate a strike will give them leverage; that a NO would show weakness in the face of negotiations with the thugs that are the AMPTP (studios). Those in favor of "NO" argue that the board is a bunch of trigger happy non-writers, not overly concerned with general rank and file. Both sides are right. And in this era of stupid wars wrought by stupid presidents, we don't have to look far to see the consequences of giving people power to wage battle.

At this point in time, everybody – the studios, the Guild – are making crazy demands of each other. Where it ends is anyone's guess at this point. My gut tells me there will not be a strike. How much more than that, I don't know. My feeling is that, given the success of the last strike (not very) and the way television has moved toward 'unscripted' shows, a strike would be a real tough nut for the writers. It's not made any easier by the fact that the studios are entities within multi-conglomerates. A strike against Sony or Warner or the like is not going to kill them. Sony makes computers and a bazillion other things. Warner basically owns the world (my non-working internet is via Time-Warner). Unfortunately, I fear that these days, the studios can weather a strike much more ably than the writers. If it were up to me, I'd try to convince writers, directors and actors to give the finger to the studios and start their own damn studios. Okay, so I'm still a bit of a dreamer.

In other Guild-related news … I got another foreign levies check from the DGA. This surprised me greatly as I expected the first one to be a one-off. It's not as if they are still playing my first feature on German television… are they? More interesting is the fact that that thus far, the WGA has not come close to equaling the amount the DGA has written. The amount apportioned both guilds is supposedly the same – so somewhere, someone isn't doing their job properly. Doing the job properly of course is assuming that one agrees that it is their job in the first place.

Which really, it's not. They just 'volunteered' for the job.

And along the lines of that thought – a director friend of mine, alerted by yours truly to the whole concept of foreign levies, discovered that he is owed "under fifty dollars" in foreign levies by the DGA. However, he was told that they are holding on to this levies money because it's their policy not to write checks to people for amounts of less than fifty bucks.
How very nice.

I love it when someone says "it's our policy…" This guild is holding on to money that doesn't belong to them because they have "a policy?" I wonder how many 'less than fifty dollar amounts' they are holding onto? Actually, I don't wonder – I know. MILLIONS… by their very admisson!
Earning interest.
Which they keep.

Keep in mind, the guild was never authorized by my friend to collect his money. The guild is not responsible for having 'created' his money. It's money that was collected by overseas entities. The guild just took, I mean, collected it. Now they have a policy not to give it to him? What if (and this is more likely than not) his movie never makes another dime? Do they keep the fifty indefinitely?

Hmmm. I could have a policy to beat up people that happen to pass by my house. Doesn't make it legal.

That's show biz, folks.

Oh, and with that, my internet seems to have come back.

I'll try to get a few more blog entries written before I go to Russia. Oh yeah – I'm going to Russia!