Filmmaking

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. – Jean-Paul Sartre A long time ago in a land far, far away, I was a teenager watching François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim. The film struck a chord with me. It follows the story of two young men, one French and the other Austrian, who meet in Paris before World War I. Lifelong friends, they eventually fall in love with the same woman. What ensues is a tragic story that, as Roger Ebert writes, “fe...

On May 18, 2005, the day after my father’s birthday, I discovered during a colposcopy that I had been exposed to DES (diethylstilbestrol) in utero.  You may be wondering, What is DES?  I had the same question.  As I started learning more, I didn’t like the answer.  DES is one of the most devastating medical disasters in history.  It’s a toxic and carcinogenic synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to millions of pregnant women for decades: from 1938 until 1971 (and in a small number of c...

I have been asked to blog about stunts. Asking me to do that … well, first off you just asked a stuntman to write. I’m not a writer, so let’s see how that works. Imagine being asked to blog about your girlfriend, who you love with all your heart. The problem is, she keeps leaving you for younger men, and now you’ve reached a time where you can’t fight off the younger men any more. That’s how I feel about stunts. In fact, I must now bring those young men to her and make certain that she doesn’t h...

“Wow, you work in the film industry, that must be amazing!!” I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard people say that when they find out what I do for a living.  Well, I have to admit in a lot of respects working in the film industry is indeed amazing. The numerous benefits & rewards can, without doubt, be life changing, but working on a Hollywood movie isn’t always a glamorous affair. For starters, it’s hard work and can at times be very stressful. It’s not uncommon for long days t...

Fellini entered the dressing room suddenly. The play hadn't finished yet. There were two comic actors yet to go. We had done our part. We had gone back to the dressing room. Little by little we were getting back into ourselves. "It seems like they laughed!" Said Roberto. Roberto was my partner on stage. "They laughed yes!" I answered. We had done an extract of our show. Twelve minutes exactly. We had been told not to do more than fifteen. There were six comic actors on the list. We wer...

On shoots for some of our bigger clients at the first agency, I'd had opportunity to be around a few "big shot" commercial directors. Evidently insecure men who made their way with more b.s. than talent. I remember one guy in particular who would scream and try his best to humiliate crew members in front of talent and client. He was one who obviously got off on the power his position gave him. This was one of my first and vivid memories of what I did NOT want to be. What I observed from this sit...

This is the same story I'm sure you've heard before, maybe even your same story ... the story of how I always wanted to make movies. Some of my earliest and most vivid memories are of my mom taking me and a few friends to the Alexandria Mall or the Don Theatre, just across the river from where I grew up in Pineville, La, to see Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Rocky. Close behind those memories are Simon & Simon on Thursday nights, Dukes of Hazzard on Friday nights, Magnum P.I., etc.,...

Drive. Desire. Passion. As a creative, we must motivate ourselves every day. External forces work against us; it's the nature of the pursuit. It's how we rise above it all, the strength of the fire in our souls, that defines who we are, and the lengths we'll go to make our dreams a reality. So the question is: What have you done today to take another step toward your goal? Maybe you've joined a class suited to your creative endeavors. Maybe you've practiced a monologue in front of a mirror....

I was the clumsy joker in my family, if a plate broke it was my fault, if the milk spilled it was me who spilled it. When I was 13, I got my first job delivering papers and saved up to buy an ink fountain pen for school. I was so excited to show my friends. On my way back from school, I went up to my room to do my homework and noticed a trail of turquoise ink on the cream carpet following me into my room. I heard a shout from downstairs: CLARE what is all this ink on the carpet? My mother shoute...

Continued from Part I... The Science of Reward Levels. This is my own science, so please realize these Rules of Thumb are my own, based on my own experience and the experience of others I know. Have entry level reward levels, like a dollar or $5. You want people to give you their email address, (in fact, the beauty of crowdfunding in general is that people are paying you to market to them). Don't mail anything until $25, and then everything from $25 to $99 should fit in a 6" x 10" padded e...