Moving on from trying to make hobbies conspicuously unproductive, there’s the notion on not waiting on one’s creative aspirations and making things. I wrote a longer post a couple years ago about this need to do and complete creative works, in part referencing the column above. Time is finite for us mere mortals, so you need to figure out where to feed your creative side while life happens. Maybe it’s on the job, maybe it’s…
Earlier this week, an under two-minute short film hit YouTube that takes the humble snowball fight and amps it up to 11. It should not surprise anyone that this is directed by an action film veteran, David Leitch, whose name may be familiar to those who’ve seen John Wick (he was the uncredited co-director). He’s gone on to direct additional action movies and he brings substantial experience as a stunt performer and coordinator to those…
Well, technically, it’s a 96-minute press conference moderated by film historian, author, and critic Richard Schickel. However, it really is a bit of a masterclass as Alfred Hitchcock, quite confident in what he does and doesn’t do, gives pronouncements about how he goes about things. Note that you may want to watch Family Plot, his last film, before watching this as that’s the reason for the press conference. You may also find that he’s rather…
Let me start by giving credit where credit where credit is due. The inspiration for this post, and indeed the title above, comes from a post this past May by Russell Nohelty on his Complete Creative site. His post hit on the current issue I have with Jabberwocky Audio Theater. It’s perhaps the most difficult metaphorical needle I’ve ever had to thread — and so I’m writing it about it here in case you’re in…
It could be finally getting around to hearing the Ray Dalio interview on Freakanomics where he talks about honesty, it could be some of the workplace diplomacy I’ve done over the past year or three, but this article by David Vallance about how Kim Scott approaches workplace communication felt very topical and applicable.
Wow, has it really been over a month since I’ve posted anything? Okay, well, I can’t go into everywhere that I’ve been, but I can tell you where I will be this weekend: Escape Velocity! Escape Velocity 2019 Promo from Museum of Science Fiction on Vimeo. I’ll be part of two panels and one performance…. Friday @ 8:20pm: Alien: 40 Years of Fright I get to chat with Charles de Lauzirika all about Alien and…
One trend I continue to follow is the decline of “mid-tier” creative works, whether they be “mid-budget” movies or “middle tier” novels. I touched on this just over two years ago when I was looking at the film Warcraft in particular and film budgets in general. At the time, I also noted how the erosion of the mid-budget movie and how a similar trend seemed to occur with “mid-list” authors. Now, superhero movies in general…
Continuing on the topic of producing films from Monday’s post on film budgets, what do you do when you –miracle of miracles– finish the film? Well, you want to get it distributed, of course! And, just as I want more than theoretical notions and generalizations for distribution, I want to know who likes to acquire what — and as much of their terms and conditions can be shared. So over at the site Dear Producer,…
One wonky thing I’m endlessly fascinated by is film budgets. When you realize that an hour of modern “prestige” TV can top $10 million, yet the average Hollywood blockbuster is over $100 million, you know certain choices are being made and risks accepted. And yes, I know traditional theatrical distribution and traditional network and cable distribution have business models that can inform and support these widely disparate budgets. However, I lap up little tidbits from…
Last week, I got confirmation that Jabberwocky Audio Theater has a thumbs up to do a live performance at the Museum of Science Fiction‘s annual science-expo-meets-pop-culture-convention, Escape Velocity! Escape Velocity 2019 Promo from Museum of Science Fiction on Vimeo. We had a chance to do a live performance of War of the Worlds last year which was well received (and a lot of fun to do as well). We don’t know the exact date and time of our performance –it’ll be…