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Showing posts from June, 2005

Morning...and beyond

And it's time to head over to NGO forum to do the paperwork for the upcoming video in Ratanakiri, finally. Now here's the rub: I've got too much work now, I think. I teach at two English schools, I'm editing Susan Hero (of course) and now I want to make this video for hire, a very important and timely doc about land alienation in the Northern Province of Ratanakiri. What to do? Take a leap and quit the English teaching? Or try to juggle everything? Also bidding for another video about a violent landgrabbing episode up in Poipet near the Thai border. If/when the money comes through, it'll be like rain in the desert, I've been so starved for cash. Amazingly, just framed my NYU diploma yesterday, first time in 13 years when I graduated. even though I think the NYU Film School degree was a waste of money (in light of its costs), I have it now and I might as well try to look impressive. So there it is: in a cheesy Cambodian gold frame perched on top of a wicke...

Quack Update

Continued editing the scene with Morell and Javier in Morel;l's lair. Some lighting issues, nothing severe; aciting by both is fabulous, Morell is very very real and very convincing. (Morell is played by Dr. Alan Rice, actor and scientist, who took a break from working with New York's Museum of Natural History to play the part) Javier is also very convincing, played by Jaime Estrada; I remember almost not being able to call Jaime after he auditioned because he didn't have his number on his photo! Anyway, it's the slow long marathon now in earnest, and as long as I can throw three or four or more hours aday at the picture, it'll right itself. Now attempting to download the 10.2.8 combo updater from Apple, but can only do this at the INternet cafe and I need an hour and a half here to do it. [97 Megs] More later...

Colonel Panic and the Lost Data

Finally solved the OS X problem, which had led me into single-user, UNIX command line only territory, by re-installing a system from scratch (though I was running 10.2.8 and the only replacement I could find here in Phnom Penh was 10.2) In short, I was getting what's known as a recurring "kernel panic", the rough Mac equivalent of the "Blue screen of death" known so well in the world of Windows. Spent many a red-eyed hour on this frigging problem, days and hours when I could'a been outside frolicing, but I had to stay inside and be a tech-geek. And of course it's in moments like these that you really have to hold onto your hat, because there's and incredible urge to take the whole f*cking rig and throw it in the damn bamboo swimming pool and call it off. Forgot to mention as well that, in the process of reinstalling the system software, accidentally deleted a partition which had a lot of non-critical material on it: photos, some software. **Thanks ab...

A Couple Dreams * Death of my Crazy Relative

Had a couple vivid dreams last night: I the first, I was in some kind of tomb or temple, and ancient place with various relics still lying around, although the place had clearly been looted. I believe I was there with some kind of team or group: nearby, occasionaly coins littered the floor. At one point, it became apparent that we had to prepare for some kind of promotion, the launch of a new liquor which cam e in very small bottles. So we began to package each relic with a small bottle of liquor, the bottles bore a fancy French script, though I don't recall what they said. Suddenly, one of my colleagues swung open a huge panel on a sort of entertainment center, revealing a well stocked liquor cabinet behind it. "See", he said, as if to show that there were more... II I was faced with the prospect of heading home to the US; I fell into a panic, realizing that everything I'd worked for in my new world would come to an end. "Don't you see, I like this place l...

Weird Trip, Continued / Mac OSX Blues

Spending heaps of time burning a bootable OSX Cd so I can repair permissions on my boot volume, "New Brain", which will allow me to continue editing Susan Hero in trouble free fashion. Next scene to cut: Morell in his lair. For all the advances the UNIX kernel offers on the platform, it's still a pain in the ass to debug and tweak things, especially here where 1) the humidity is higher and can degrade equipment including HARD DRIVES and 2) we pay for the Internet here by the Megabyte. Thus, I surf the web with images turned OFF, and I create lists of things to down load, ala apps and utilities, which I'll download at an Internet cafe. Anyway, want to continue the tale where I left off, where were we, ah yes, on our way to the hospital. So we whipped aroung the traffic circle by the grotesque Lions -- due to the French influence here in INDOCHINA, there are traffic circles everywhere, even in Rattanakiri dirt roads which lead to remote hilltribe villages you might fi...

Weird Trip to The Coast / Editing at Last

[From "HURRICANE", the uncensored production diary of the making of Susan Hero] Anyway, just finished polishing the first real scene, the scene between Lonnie and Waseta and their powerful mysterious “moment” together. Also worked a bit on the arrival of Susan and Javier at the Motel, which I’d previously cut then put aside to ripen and mellow. Tightened it up, it has some rough edges though due to coverage which I may not be able to fix—but it also has one of the saddest and most real moments I’ve seen so far, a real film moment, no dialogue, just Susan sitting in profile on the bed with Jav in the background something about the awful silence of the shot that really does something… Finger hurting less in general, but a lumpy knob on the first joint where I cracked the taxi driver in the bone of his brow and cheek; although my main knuckles hit his brow solidly (and split it, so that the ridiculous animal cops who came to interrogate me later took digital photos of the blo...

(((In the Spirit of William Blake)))

Old Bill Blake, by the way, was a successful engraver and sold a lot of his work at his workshop by the side of the road -- an early example of vertical integration. Anyway, quick note, logged and looked at more footage; the more I see, the more my eye bewitched be. No, but really, I don't know what to make of it...it's a very mysterious project, it feels like its got a life of its own. In any case, it'll either be 1) good 2) a piece of sh*t or 3) mediochre. Tomorrow: I might head to Takao province; my friend Money, her brother was just killed in a motorcycle accident. Two girls riding with him were also killed...the impact flung them up into the trees. In light of this, what fat ass in America can deign to grasp the golden hand of Man?

FILMMAKERS: Beware of former Independent Film Channel Buyer Kelly Devine! (*now with the Global Peace Film Festival)

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Update September 15, 2016: Just going through old blog posts and have noticed this one; unfortunately, it still remains unresolved, so am leaving it as is until it may eventually be addressed, i.e., we get a customary kill fee for the deal that Kelly Devine, formerly of IFC Films, reneged on some time ago and ran out on. Apparently (and ironically?) she's now working with a film festival in Orlando called the 'Global Peace Film Festival'. One sure way to promote global peace, I would suggest first and foremost, is not to break written agreements with filmmakers whose livelihoods are affected by damaging, tortious issues like this . The kill fee for this deal, which I originally requested shortly after the incident occurred back in 2005, and which still remains unresolved, would not be a huge amount. The kill fee would be 10% of the agreed licensing total for our movie, 'BookWars' - thus $3500, without interest accumulated since that time. In any case, a kill ...

More Reactions to the Footage from Susan Hero

Have been busy logging, and working a lot, thus tired and not inthe mood to write too much, but I'm struck by the great performances of all the emerging local actors we used in the picture: Jaime Estrada (javier Appollinaire) Drea Pressley (Susan) Dr Morell (Alan Rice), Lonnie (Dave Paytayamo) everyone is spot on and very authentic, great naturalistic performances. Almost documentary like, nothing is "over the top", everything modulated well and it's really a pleasure to see after all this time-- all this frustration, agonizing waiting, hustling, worrying, scraping, trying to get by, enduring the b*llshit bogus deal from HD Cinema 10 --which was really very very diappointing and made me want to give up filmmaking... Anyway, it's like some shining fruit that's fallen into my lap, fallen from a tree like one of the juicy Cambodian mangoes. ON the downside, I'm lower in cash than I've been since HIGH SCHOOL, and word is the school where I teach will be l...