Finally, after a week long hiatus from the rest of society, I've finished the trailer to my film "The Dead Pass Swiftly." I'm super excited about how it turned out. My buddy Dave Brown gave me a lot of good advice about how to go about editing the trailer. I was a bit apprehensive (actually, it was more than a bit) about some of the suggestions. In the original, I had short snippets that included commentary, but Dave didn't think that the commentary was necessary. He mentioned how powerful imagery can be. I wasn't trying to hear it. I kept the commentary until the very last minute. It really didn't fit in with the scheme of the trailer so, with tears, I cut it out entirely. But, I'm super excited about how well it turned out. My first trailer for one of my films! It's like March Madness in February. I can hear Dickie V in the background "The excitement BABY! America are you SERIOUS!!!" The film was scored by a friend of Dave's. Sadly, I cannot remember his name (if you're reading this you have my sincerest apologies) but I hope to work with him on future projects. He's a really talented composer. Hope you all enjoy the trailer as much as I enjoyed putting it together :) Good fright and all aboard the Train To Midnight.
Hello passengers. I trust you had a good sleep in Love Lost. It seems as though we are a few passengers short. I suppose they are lost in the town of Lost. Woe to those lost in the town of Lost. For they will surely wander the streets trying to find a way...to nowhere. As the conductor is tossing logs in the engine, allow me to tell you a story. A story of horror. I watched "Apocalypse Now" (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) yesterday in my Religion and Film class. In all honesty, at first, I thought the movie was rather boring. Though I do like war movies. Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan (just to name a couple) are two excellent war films. In all honesty, I didn't realize how much I loved the film until the end. The plot of the film is for Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) to hunt down and kill a fellow American soldier: Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marion Brand0). As a side note, a young Lawrence Fishburne takes the role of a 17 year old soldier. He gives us definite glimpses of the Fishburne audiences will come to know and love. Kurtz is believed to have gone insane and has sustained himself deep in the jungle as king of a tribe of "jungle dwellers" as I call them. The movie is set during the time of the Vietnam War. The irony is that though the war is going on, Captain Willard is sent on a dummy mission as a scape-goat to kill an American soldier all for the fact that the army wants him dead. The voice over dialogue in the film is of extreme excellence. Martin Sheen gives an excellent performance as well.
What I most like about the film...is Kurtz. In the beginning, Kurtz is established as this insane figure who's completely broken from the U.S. Army and, because of this, needs to be terminated. Coppola takes us on a journey through the horrors of Nam, deep into the heart of darkness (in relation to the novel by Joseph Conrad of the same name). When Captain Willard finally catches up with Kurtz, the audience is introduced to a far more introspective being whose reflections on society has caused him to seek a greater good, but also to delve deep within himself to manifest the darkness within. A darkness which he refers to as "The Horror."
It was in this that I found a sort of serenity. The words of Kurtz resignated a truth that I discovered through the eyes, lips, and heart of Kurtz. It isn't I that am evil, but it is the Horror within myself, within every individual that makes us evil. I would juxtapose that Horror next to the original sin. It takes something, something deep inside of human beings to be able to perform the actions that Kurtz performed. The ordering of the killing of thousands/millions of innocent individuals. But, in retrospect isn't that what religion has done. Haven't many died in the name of and against religion? Though Kurtz calls this evil, this will to destroy "Horror", couldn't that evil, that Horror, also be called "The Goodness" or "The Light?" At one point, Kurtz even utters, "You have no right to call me a murderer, you have a right to kill me...you have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me..."
For my killing, for those that I have murdered...you have no right to judge me. What I see, those that I have destroyed...though you do not understand and may never understand...you have no right to judge me. It would be well served to say that if Kurtz is a murderer, then we are all murderers. At some point in our lives, we have killed someone. By thoughts unwritten, deeds undone, and goals unachieved. I once heard a minister say, "There are certain people who can only get saved through the sound of one specific person's voice." Not because God could not save them, but because he ordained someone to go through similar circumstances so that that man's testimony would save him that was lost. If that man, having given up on himself and thus life, never testifies than another could never be saved. Thus that man is a murderer. That goes for anything in life. We are all assigned specific tasks in life. Whatever that might be and if we do not carry out those tasks...we are all murderers...."The Horror...The Horror" Alright passengers, I think the engine is warm. It is time that we exit the town of Lost. Let us journey deeper into the jungle. We shall arrive at the heart of darkness someday, or eternally wander the chambers of sorrow. All aboard the Train to Midnight.
Time to slow the train a bit. We've arrived at the station in Love Lost. It is here that I shall write my first, but probably not last, take on the infamous four letter word LOVE. No idea what this word means. I try to stay optimistic about it but the truth is, sometimes (more often than not) I feel totally incapable of following through on what that word actually means. I'm not like most people though. I don't fear love. I fear the repercussions of what love means, but I don't fear love in and of itself. Sometimes, when I sit and think about love, I feel I'll never really know what love, true love, is. And, what is TRUE love and who came up with the concept that all love couldn't be true love? I'm digressing now, a tactic used in the procrastination of punching these keys and writing out how I really feel about love. Funny thing happened yesterday. I was watching a video of a woman. And the video showed the woman in a compromising state under the "control" of a man. It was in that moment that I viewed women as nothing more than a thing. A thing that had to be controlled. Not exactly inhuman but not fully human. Like they're here to be controlled by men. Even with the independent women of the 21st century, watching this woman, this one woman being compromised by a man really struck a chord in me. In combination with an essay that I studied in my Film Studies class, I watched a woman, which is especially common in today's society, being controlled under a watchful gaze of both the male and the audience. In a term called fettishistic scopophilia, used by Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," the male, afraid of the real threat a woman poses because of her lack of the phallus (a penis), men tend to break the woman down into parts so that the woman is no longer seen as a WOMAN but rather a piece of meat that the male is able to mold and shape into anything he so pleases. To bring my argument back to center, while watching the video, my perceptions of women and love turned into this blah of a portrait that circled around the idea that love does not exist. Rather there is only submissiveness to the man and through this, and this only, can true love (or a true heterosexual union) exist. I say this because if a woman poses a threat to a man, the only way a man can TRULY love a woman is if he is able to assert his dominance over her and loom over his prize like a hunter would his kill. Love. I hardly know you and yet I know you well. Like strangers on the dance floor we twirl in intimacy never once stopping to ask who we are, then, as strangers on a train we depart never to see one another again. Love. Alright passengers, it seems the conductor is a bit tired. We'll have to remain in Love Lost for the night. Surely you do not mind for I see some of you have brought your female counterparts along for the journey. Be careful, do not wander the darkness, for there are many dangers that lurk within the streets of Love Lost. If you are afraid, take my hand. We shall walk the streets of the Lost...together.
Good night guys and ghouls. I had to open with the infamous line from "Tales from the Crypt." So, I have good news and I have semi-bad news. Let's start with the bad news. As I stated in my post yesterday, I'd been having some trouble transporting the video for the Hip Hop Aids Fashion show from my computer onto a dvd. The footage kept glitching around 8 minutes. Sadly enough, I had to "kill my darlings." Shout out to Berger for blogging about what the line means. I'll give the simplified version. "Cut the fluff." The only sad thing was that the "fluff" that I cut wasn't fluff at all, they were two good bites I used from interviews. The dvd burned successfully after I cut the two bites though. I switched around a couple of the interviews to increase the fluidity. I can honestly say that I'm satisfied with the final product. I sprinkled some tear jerker music throughout the video to increase the level of intimacy with the audience. We'll see what happens on D-Day (aka Friday) though.
The good news is I've FINALLY been able to get back to work on my short film "The Dead Pass Swiftly." After a two week hiatus, I'm back :) I'm super excited about the project. Even though I've been away for two weeks, I'm bringing even more knowledge about film and editing to the table. I'm confident that this will only make the film that much stronger and thus more potent. For the next month or so, I'll be in my lair (aka The Studio) editing. I'm excited to see the finished product. I got a guy named Dave Brown that works here at the college helping me with the audio. He'll be helping me fix some of those annoying hisses that sometimes accomodate video when using an external mic. He'll also be helping me score the film. The film has an urban feel, but I've gotten into jazz as of late, specificall John Coltrane. I'll try to find some way to combine both the urbanity (if that's a word) and a more soulful (jazz) feel for the music. I really want people to fully emerse themselves into the film. After all, that's the hope for all filmmakers. That for a second, maybe a brief moment, that the spectator forgets themselves in the physical only to be reawoken on the screen. Excitement baby!
I've put together two scenes so far. I have to tighten up the scenes that I've edited and link them into the sequence that I've begun to form. It's a really time consuming process, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's my passion. Looks like I'll be burning the midnight oil yet again tonight. A small sacrifice in the greater scheme of pushing my art forward, peace.
I've been editing a video for the Hip Hop Aids Fashion Show At CofC for the past few days. Just when I thought I was done, the inevitable happens. As the saying goes, one cannot have their cake and eat it too. Oh, the irony!!! The video began glitching as soon as I'd compressed it in Final Cut Pro. Teardrop. Hurt my heart really. It's taken me a couple hours to get the problem straight but I think I've finally mixed the right medicine to cure my little problem. I had to give my boy Jesse Berger a couple calls, which ultimately guided me in the right direction. He advised that I try a combination of things. I was a bit deflated to hear that there were more than one way to fix the problem. Deflated because that meant that there was no right way, so, in turn, I'd have to experiment and wait an hour for the project to compress before I discovered whether or not the problem was actually fixed...ugh! To my relief, it seems that simply opening a new project file and copying and pasting the timeline from the original project onto the new sequence might have done the trick. I'll take the optimistic approach on this one. We shall surely see in another 30 minutes or so though...keep your fingers crossed.
I'll take some time to talk about my long awaited project that I shot over Winter Break. My friend, Braker, gave me the idea that I should shoot a sequel to a short film I shot with some of my friends from home two summers ago entitled: "SLIP." The plot is about two cops that have been chasing a known drug dealer for the past couple of months. Just as they thought they had him cornered, he manages to "slip" out of their grasps. Hints the title "SLIP." Anyway, I was all for the idea until I got a text from my friend Gary telling me that a guy we'd come up knowing was shot to death in a home invasion. The news was both shocking and deflating. To be quite honest, me and the guy weren't the best of friends, but to hear that someone from your community died in such a tragic way is never good news.
My tune soon changed when I discovered that he was not the one being robbed, but...he was the robber. Suddenly, I didn't feel as bad. Call me inhumane if you must but it's hard to feel sympathy towards someone doing something with an inevitable outcome. I mean...what else was to be expected? A couple days later after talking to a couple more of my friends and my cousin, I'd settled on the idea of doing a story based around the event. The plot would entail a home invasion, but I'd add my own backstory. 2-3 weeks later I'd written "The Dead Pass Swiftly." The story follows a young man named Robbie. Robbie's father was killed before Robbie was born (the opening sequence of the film) while attempting a home invasion. Robbie's father, John, is a hustler, but moreso a jack of all trades. Presently, Robbie is stricken by a non-existent mother figure and the want to get out of a situation that only seems to worsen. The story follows Robbie as he makes his way up the food chain (so to speak) only to inherit the sins of his father and because of this is destined to end up like his father.
I took the last week of Winter Break to make the film. Working on a budget of less than $100 the footage came out pretty good. As of now, I've edited six scenes. I hope to have a rough cut by the end of the week so I can get a good idea of what I'll have to tighten up. I'm excited about the project though I've been on a two week hiatus because of other projects. I'll have to kick my gears into overdrive if I hope to show the film in a month or so at an event for Rhapsody in Black. An event that celebrates black art. It's held by our colleges Black Student Union (BSU). I'm confident I'll be able to have a decent version of the film to show. At the very least something that I'll be able to hold my head up on. I'll take the optimistic approach in this as well.
Now I'm still waiting on this HIV/Aids video to compress. My eyes are growing weary so I'll probably come back in the morning to see if switching the sequences worked. This song I'm listening to by Nas "Hero" is kinda giving me an extra boost. I might just have to burn the midnight oil. I'll keep you updated on how both projects turn out, peace.
"I don't wanna live no mo. Sometimes I hear death knocking at my front do."
Words reminiscient of a life unlived. If you've been gracious enough to live long enough on this mediary time capsule called earth, you've felt this way at one point in life. Out of the whole song "Everyday Struggle" those two lines speak volumes of what the everyday struggle truly is. It speaks of how strenuous life has gotten and the semiously uphill battle one has been fighting. We're born to fall victim to the everyday struggle. In a sense we're born into the everyday struggle. No matter how rich one is or how poor one is, we all face our own demons. Sometimes we get so caught up in how glamorous the other half lives that we forget that they are not unlike ourselves. Just like you, they're born to die. The everyday struggle plagues everything under the sun. There's no escape...is there? To deal with the woes, some get hooked on a drug of choice. Others encapsulate themselves as to be locked away from the apocalypse that's taking place on the other side of their walls. Some choose to face the struggle. Muster the courage to look the struggle in the eyes and go toe to toe with what should surely be their downfall. One thing is for sure, whether one chooses to run from it or run at it, there's no escaping the everyday struggle. But, as Frost puts it:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
I ask you now faithful reader. Take my hand. As Frost has promised, "the woods are lovely, dark and deep." We might stumble a bit, but do not worry if we part hands briefly. It is only for me to find my way. We shall assuredly meet again. As two strangers kissing in the dark. Do not fear. Do you trust me? Come now, the train has begun to pick up speed. The conductor has called for the last of the passengers. All aboard THE TRAIN TO MIDNIGHT.
I love film. Everything about the filmmaking experience from start to finish has a special place in my heart. Film is the medium that alows me to hold a mirror to society in hopes that, for better or worse, they see something of themselves within my art. I'm a grounded individual seeking to do more good than bad in this world cause in the end those are the people who are truly remembered.
