FUDGE

Journal Entry 2/12/09

“Upon gazing at the stars outside of the city”

First, I must allow myself to concentrate.

Looking up into the stars…. They are placed there to mystify us.  To help guide us in the myth creation process.  Myths, helping us to build our societies.  Imagination and creativity are natural tools our species has to create the unknown and push creation forward.  We must create the unknown to justify our own survival.  The stars above are a bigger part of the nature creation process.  They are a distraction…  a beautiful distraction.  Helping us to manifest ourselves and the world we create.  But beyond the stars.  The distractions build new distractions which build new distractions.  Because the universes is a living thing and must survive too.  The stars are an illusion of nature to help other planets survive and grow.  All a process within this un-mammalian colossus.

All of us are a part of a bigger design.  It is beautiful.  But the beauty is just a distraction, like the stars.  All meant to inspire creativity.  The awe that keeps us moving.  To survive.  To feed the universe.

So great news!  The investors and producers have decided now is the time to start putting Lovely, Still in festivals!  This is great news for me as I get to travel around going to them.  It is great news for you if you live near any of the places it will be screening (not in competition).

For sure, in October, it will be screening in Milwaukee (cool), Chicago (radical!), Las Vegas (Get wasted!) and Brazil (Adventure!) .

The dates for the Milwaukee Film Festival are ;

Saturday, October 3 at 7:00 PM

Sunday, October 4 at 1:15 PM

I will be there doing a Q&A.  More exact dates coming soon.

I turned 25 over the weekend.  What an intense feeling.  To have written a film while 17, directed it at 23 and then sat on it til 25.  Time has a way of being sneaky.

I had lunch with Martin Landau today at a diner in LA.  We talked about how film has changed over the last 50 years and we both agree that this generation in film is by far the worst.  “They used to at least try and make good movies.  Now it’s just opening weekends.”  The people running this thing used to at least have an interest in film, but now it’s been taken over by businessmen.  Businessmen who get fired if they say “yes” and promoted if they say “no”.  Whole things run on a fear of not loosing a job, not if a film is good or not.  But, I suppose it can’t help itself.  Money is a beautiful religion.  On the bright side, all things will eventually change and move.  It’s exciting to be a filmmaker now.   The industry is so horrible that the only thing it is capable of is getting better and I want to be a part of that process.

Had a few secret showings of the film to close friends this weekend.  Reminded me of how much I love to show it and how great it will feel to show it to a larger audience.  I am contimplating the idea of going on a tour this fall.  Going from state to state with the film and having secret screenings in each city.  That sounds like it would be a lot of fun for me.

Hey everyone,

I have to take a short break for a few days.  I’m playing lead again for Derek Pressnall’s band Flower Forever and we have a show tomorrow.  I gotta learn 8 new songs in three days.  A new Behind the Scenes video will be up on Monday.  Thanks for waiting (If anyone is actually reading this thing).

Nik

I’ve been asked; “Nik, who did the song in the Lovely, Still Trailer.”  Which I answer “It’s not a trailer, it’s a promo and… That’s Arthur Dodge – He’s this incredible singer/songwriter from Lawrence.”

Arthur Dodge is rad, man – His voice has such a great feeling.  It’s very classic, which is refreshing in indie music today, and he writes a million songs a year.  Truly prolific – notebooks and notebooks I hear.  I saw him play in an empty bar in Kansas City once.  All the drunks in the room suddenly became silent and all energy was focused on this man sitting by himself playing guitar and smoking cigarettes.  It was incredible! After the show I got his phone number and told him I wanted him to do music for my film.

He ended up doing two songs for Lovely, Still that will be on the soundtrack.  A cover of “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and the song which is in the Berlin Promo – “Check Out Line” – They will both be on the soundtrack.

Myspace

Website

So I’m sure some of you may be wondering when my film, Lovely, Still,  is actually coming out.  In fact I know many are,  because I get asked a lot.  Probably four or five times a day.  It’s a real bummer because I don’t have an answer.  The film played for standing ovations in Toronto and everyone really loved it (Except for Variety – Which really sucks because in the film business everyone listens to Variety and that’s it – Gross). It even got some of coveted Oscar buzz.

The problem with reviews is that too many people are split in groups this day and age – It is impossible to connect with everyone’s tastes.  The internet has really broken people up into specific cultures and interests. Marketing to a wide audience is almost impossible.  This is probably the reason for all the remakes the past few years.  They’re a sure fire way to bring groups together through nostalgia.  A cheap trick.

Anyways – Best I can tell regarding a release date is a vague “Fall”.  It feels horrible, in the end, all you want to do when you make a film is show it to people.  If I can get even a minimal release, I will be happy and I think the film will speak for itself when people see it.  I will keep everyone updated.  We are in talks right now with all of the interesting distribution companies.  They all really love it, it’s just a matter if they want to take a risk or not.  These are tough times for the film business.  Can a film about two old people fill seats?  How do you market something like that?  – There is a always a solution to every problem.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Each week I will be adding an artist that worked on Lovely, Still and some background on them.

THIS WEEK:  Sean Kirby (Seen to the right of Martin and Adam wearing a pink hat)

Job on Lovely, Still: Director of Photography

While in pre-production of Lovely, Still I spent a lot of time watching different reels for DPs.  It was hard for me to find someone who truly used the camera as a visual tool and altered reality with their eye.  I found out right away that a lot of the Indie DP’s reels I watched had a very real/documentary style.  I wanted my film to have a very visual and painted look.  A place you want to be, but know doesn’t exist.  A world imagined – No real products will ever show up and the town it takes place in is completely fictional.

When I saw Sean’s reel I was completely blown away.  He used light and shadows excellently and I was excited to see what he could do with color.   A lot of the ideas on the LS visuals were to use the concept of a “Christmas film” as a tool to spread colors and lights throughout frame.  Sean invented a piece of equipment where we could actually light the actor’s face with Multi-Colored Christmas lights.  The results were beautiful.

The other rad thing about Sean is that he used to be a fine art painter, then after going to college for it, he up and changed his mind and decided to dedicate his life to film.  How sweet is that?  You can see it when you work with him.  The guy really paints with light and I am proud to say he is my collaborator and friend (He wore a pink hat for like a week during production to bond with me – See above.)

Here is his website.

I did an interview for Alternative Press Magazine.

Check it out here

Ever so often I will put together short little “Behind the Scenes of Lovely, Still” Montage. Hopefully they will better acquaint you all with the cast and crew of the film.  As well as show you some honest BTS independent filmmaking.  This shit’s fun!

PART ONE

Being an account of life on a film set as well as Shot #1

Here is a Promo that was constructed for the Berlin Film Festival.  It’s point was to entice Foreign Buyers to see the film and buy it at the upcoming Cannes.  Foreign Buyers are Distributors who purchase your film and the right to play it in their respected foreign countries.  This process pays back the investors… Which is good.

The promo is four minutes long of straight Lovely, Still footage.  I like it.  The music in it is the score by Nate Walcott and Mike Mogis as well as an unreleased Arthur Dodge track (With special guest Dri).

The trailer will be much shorter obviously, but I like the vibe this puts out.  It’s not a “for a specific Market” trailers (Which I hate and am sure we’ll have to unfortunately make at some point. ugghhh).  Aren’t people realizing how completely dishonest trailers are these days?  It’s sick!

BERLIN PROMO