keep yourself busy

i just got an email from an old friend of mine, robert loomis, a fellow filmmaker who i met at the IFP in new york back in 2001. it's been a very long time since i've heard from him, but still, it sounds like he's doing really well. he congratulated me on the film, and also mentioned how this phase of the film, the promotions and festivals and such, was the part that he really didn't enjoy. i have to agree with him. there's no way to tell how people will react to the film, and whether it'll get into any festivals. it seems like the fun part of making movies is the production end of it, not the promotions. sure, festivals can be a lot of fun, particularly meeting other people who dig your work. but all the work that it takes to put it out there is kinda a drag.

anyhoo, in the mean time, to keep myself busy in between the promotions of praxis and the writing and re-writing of other scripts, i've recently put together new promos for Current TV and XM. i decided to put together fun little promos that i could do quickly and easily, without a ton of thought put into it. these definitely help keep me busy on creating work in between the major filmwork, and i think that they are a worthwhile diversion. they ultimately also add to the reel.

so, i think it's worth it to look into other on-line communities that give filmmakers an opportunity to showcase work, and get feedback too. anyhoo, it's all in good fun...

animal suits

last monday, i met up with tom macy because he and a friend were just stopping into dc to catch a ball game. they were traveling to several cities and checking out different stadiums and games - tom is a big baseball fan. anyhoo, i was able to meet up with him for a couple of drinks before they headed to the game. i kinda gave him the update on what was happening with the film - setting up a myspace page, submitting it to several festivals, sending it out to contacts, and pretty much everything i can to put the film out there. i even sent it to montreal and plan to send it to other foreign film fests too. he was really excited.

so i mentioned something to him that i noticed recently about a lot of the indie films that are out there now, wondering if its the current hip/cool thing to do to get your movie in a festival: animal suits. is it just me? or are there a ton of pseudo -indie comedies out there that involve one if not several characters dressed up in some sort of animal suit? is that all anyone has to do to get into sundance? does this mean that 'mumblecore' is out and 'animal suits' are in? i don't get it.

both me and tom talked about how a lot of the american films that were at canne this past year got snubbed, and that the films that did really well were small foreign films about personal stories - films that had more substances without a lot of dialogue. i kinda think that i seem to prefer these kind of films. sure, putting someone in an animal suit is always funny - but i think it's being overdone. canne's argument is that they totally want to separate their festival from the commercialized sundance fest, and that they want to be on the forefront of 'world' cinema.

i'd just like to see more substance and thought put into making a movie - sort of a 'neo-hollywood' or 'neo-realist hollywood' or 'neo-realist indie'...something along those lines.

fortunately, PRAXIS does not have anybody in an animal suit...