News of the Future! Today is the first time I've noticed this BBC News feature -- a rundown of probable headline news stories for the upcoming week, ranging from the serious to the absurd. I totally dig this. News of the Future! Tomorrow's headlines today! Because it's nice to know about Malaysia's 50th anniversary of independence. It is also nice to know:SATURDAY 1 SEPTEMBER
Top 'tache: The Beard Liberation Front, the UK-based informal network of beard-wearers, will announce the result of its search for the Barber of the Year 2007 to mark the World Beard and Moustache Championships.Of course, Ian McShane always wins. Even when he's 'stach-less. But that's just me.
posted by Liz # 12:55 PM 0 Comments
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{ Thursday, August 23, 2007 }BUH-DO-BE-DE DUH! BUH BU BUH DUH! OMG! NBC pumps up for 'Gladiators' redo! If this is the only good thing to come of the upcoming writer's strike, well, that might almost be worth it. posted by Liz # 10:19 AM 0 Comments
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{ Tuesday, August 21, 2007 }The two items of interest from this morning's web browsing BBC NEWS | Europe | The secret history of the Nazi mascot: "In newsreels, he was paraded as 'the Reich's youngest Nazi' and he witnessed some unspeakable atrocities. But his SS masters never discovered the most essential detail about his life: their little Nazi mascot was Jewish."
The 13th Floor Elevators, performing "You're Gonna Miss Me." (Jug and all.)
Slow news day. Sloooooooooooooooow. posted by Liz # 10:41 AM 0 Comments
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{ Friday, August 17, 2007 }A round-up of stuff I've done recently (and not-so-much) I've been trying not to be so self-promote-y, but every once in a while it's nice to put together a collection of links, for those interested.
For example! I'm pretty happy with my review of Warren Ellis's Crooked Little Vein, if you want to check that out.
And I wrote up my Comic-Con experiences on Thursday and Friday for the Bookslut blog, then realized how frightfully boring they were and decided to stop. Still, you can see me plug my friends' work on Shin Chan and coyly mention seeing Masi Oka, if you're in the mood.
A shorty-short short story I wrote got published on 365tomorrows, which is an interesting site for sci-fi fans who need regular daily fixes.
And, just remembered about this: a knitting pattern I, um, crafted (?) was published in the book Chic Knits for Young Chicks. The whole book is really charming (in fact, last night I started a shrug pattern contributed by my friend Alexis), but you can see the instructions for my pattern here.
And most of these things are also documented on the revised Projects page here on this site. For future reference.
Also, hey, how about these new link colors?! Shiny, right?Labels: in which our heroine, projects:writing
posted by Liz # 3:58 PM 0 Comments
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{ Thursday, August 16, 2007 }HOLY CRAP! Hey, look kids! It's news genetically engineered to make ME and only ME happy:
Colm Meaney to play Gene Hunt in American Life on Mars!!!!!11!!!!
Yeah, yeah, irony of Irish actors being cast in American remake of British show. Noted. But c'mon, Star Trek: DS9 fans with inappropriate crushes on "no-nonsense, old-school detectives" who really liked Life on Mars but will give the American version a chance! Where my sisters at?
Also: huh, a spin-off? That is interesting indeed.Labels: teacher mother secret lover, tv:life on mars
posted by Liz # 10:05 AM 0 Comments
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{ Wednesday, August 15, 2007 }Favorite search term ever... "Time traveling comic book heroine 2007."
I'd like that on my tombstone. Um, without the 2007, that is. posted by Liz # 3:47 PM 2 Comments
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Brain Overload On a bit of an infotainment binge this week, which often happens during slow weeks when I feel like I have a chance of actually keeping up with the world. However, between all these links, and the lack of sleep, it's no wonder my brain is a little addled...
Ethnic minorities being crushed in Iraq: "All minorities at least were respected in some way or another during Saddam's reign -- unlike now when democracy has brought to us only kiddnapping, killings, displacement."
Ken Levine, on how to interview a celebrity: The celebrity will arrive late. You must report how late and what her excuse was. And you must forgive her. Even if the excuse is, "I forgot" or "I had to liquor up to do this because I find you repulsive," you must be charmed.
Oh, and Oh, and we may all be living in a computer simulation: Dr. Bostrom doesn't pretend to know which of these hypotheses is more likely, but he thinks none of them can be ruled out. "My gut feeling, and it's nothing more than that," he says, "is that there's a 20 percent chance we're living in a computer simulation." Unsure if this explains anything about the world today. But gods, I hope it might.Labels: not quite like the west wing, science nonfiction
posted by Liz # 12:52 PM 0 Comments
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Oh, and speaking of political douchebags From the 1960s comes George Wallace's pro-segregaton comic book. posted by Liz # 12:28 PM 0 Comments
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I didn't actually know these things! N&W: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Karl Rove. Well, except for the turd blossom thing. But that's a pretty recent reveal. posted by Liz # 12:25 PM 0 Comments
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{ Monday, August 13, 2007 }MISSED: Pre-Production So over a year ago, I spent a weekend directing a short film for festival distribution, with the help of a number of very nice and talented folks. It was a fun, if exhausting, process and I loved most every second of it -- the chance to bring to life an idea close to my heart, yet hopefully appealing to others, was really kind of rad.
Then a combination of my own problems and other difficulties meant that I didn't have picture lock until this June. This has been one of my great embarrassing secret shames of the past year -- but now, dear reader, we are on track! There is picture! Soon, there will be sound! And by the end of the month, I will be able to prove that when I said I could make a short film, I wasn't just joshing. Whether or not it was worth the wait remains to be seen. But I remain optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that I'm finally going to talk about the process publicly, in preparation for having to write up notes for Without A Box and all the film festivals I plan to submit to. So please enjoy the story. It's not over yet, but nothing wrong with a work in progress.
How it started is simple: nearly two years ago, I saw a short film written and directed by a friend of mine, and thought to myself, well, self, that looks easy. Sure, it's been a few years since film school. But you could probably do that.
The idea itself took a little longer to generate, but in the end I drew upon one of my favorite themes -- romantic comedies are really stupid -- and added an exciting twist that (I hoped) gave it some freshness. I wrote the first draft of Missed in November 2005, and over the next six months rewrote those six pages no fewer than nine times. Originally, the script took place in the 1980s, would have been shot in my apartment and my hometown video store, and had three pages of extraneous dialogue. These were, needless to say, absolutely awful ideas. But most of them were fixed when the time period moved to the 1970s. Because the 1970s were much much cooler than the 1980s. FACT.
The script also had a lot of really funny lines, but when I started showing it around to people, the main note I got was that the tone was inconsistent. So I cut all the funny lines. Then people thought the tone was fine. And really, those lines weren't too funny anyways.
At the time, of course, the whole thing was incredibly in the abstract -- until that spring, when I filed my tax return for 2005 and found out that despite all the freelance work I'd done, my many months of temping meant I'd actually be getting money back from the government. I looked at the numbers on the bottom line, thought about my sad little savings account for approximately two minutes, then started hunting around for a producer.
Jillian and I met through a friend, and she liked the script enough to tell me what was wrong with it. If the twist of Missed works at all, it's because Jillian kept on me during the rewriting process, forcing me to push the double meaning to its limit, until in theory you can watch it backwards and forwards with no conflicts.
Pre-production on this scale mostly consists of "what is the bare minimum of stuff we need, and what's the cheapest way to get it?" Luckily, the big stuff -- camera and actors -- come pretty easy. In the case of camera, I ended up reconnecting with Maya, who I knew vaguely well in film school but never worked with until I sent out a mailing list query for a DP. Maya had several sterling recommendations -- talent, niceness, and her own camera -- plus the same enthusiasm for getting back into the filmmaking game. We became great friends as a result. (This is by far one of the nicer things to come from the production of Missed.)
Actors, meanwhile, worked out pretty easy. I really enjoy the casting process, because actors are insanely fun -- and it finally begins to feel real at that point, because people who aren't your friends are actually interested in being in your movie and that's just weird. One girl sent her headshot with a very simple cover letter: "I know I don't have a lot of experience, but if I suck, you can punch me in the face." Damn right I brought her in. She was just okay. Not great, but not quite worthy of physical abuse. Ah well.
The first actor we cast was Kathleen, as the best friend with a secret, in large part because she could do a French accent. (The character wasn't actually French at that point, but Jillian suggested we try it and I loved how it played.) Men are always much easier to cast than women, because there are simply fewer male actors, but Joachim made it even easier. True story -- he originally auditioned for the part of Sergei using an accent he'd perfected for a performance of Dracula. As I am a cultured and worldy young woman, I could not tell the difference. And Bonnie, our lead, just brought it every time, giving each run a new twist... Casting is all about experimenting and possibilities and finding out what people can do. It's always a pleasure.
The one big missing piece was location, and that was all Jillian, who tracked down a just-opened coffee shop that would be happy to let us in before they opened. The problem with coffee shops and cafes is that they often like to be open during daylight hours -- but this place didn't open until 11, which meant we could sneak in before they opened and get the scenes we needed. All we needed to do was wake up at 4 AM. Um. Easy.
I tell you all these details because it's fun to remember them, the work that went into this. It's also fun to remember that it really happened, that it was actually possible. Just a matter of saying you're doing it and digging in.
Notes for myself, for the thanks: D. and Dad and K. for reading drafts, JS and Aimee for reading with actors, JG for the audition space. Plus all the usual suspects.
The story of production a little later. Right now, I have to listen to composer reels. Slamdance early deadline is August 27th. Sundance is September 7th. Dig in. Get it done.
Because it can be.Labels: projects:missed
posted by Liz # 11:16 PM 0 Comments
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{ Tuesday, August 7, 2007 }Science Fiction! In the Present! Apparently, they're doing a Flash Gordon reboot this summer. Man. I missed that memo enirely. Yo no se Flash Gordon. But I do enjoy the website's action-packed, whizz-bang-flash approach to copy-writing:
Hot damn! A weekly dramedy! Ma and Pa, grab the li'l ones and pop 'em down in front of the tee-vee! This show's gonna be on EVERY WEEK!
This of course leaves many questions about how Flash Gordon in the present day works. Some sort of Stargate thing? Oh, god, I can't even bring myself to care.Labels: teacher mother secret lover
posted by Liz # 5:01 PM 0 Comments
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{ Monday, August 6, 2007 }Small Children Wearing Adorable Costumes While wandering the convention floor at Comic-Con this year, I found myself fascinated by the kids towed to the convention in costume -- some of whom were excited at the chance to be their favorite hero for a day, some of whom were totally unimpressed by the whole scenario. So I started asking them questions. And that's what lead to this.
Please note the following facts:
- Every child was interviewed only after I received permission from their parent/guardian/whoever thought it would be a good idea to dump them into a Pikachu costume.
- I am SO PISSED that I never got a chance to interview the Han/Leia brother-sister team, who would pose on cue with blasters.
- The camera used for this project was a decent but non-fancy camcorder. Thus, the picture quality is not the best, and the autofocus makes me die inside.
- I am also not a cinematographer, editor, or sound designer by trade.
- I am full of excuses. But small children are full of awesome.
Enjoy! And if you do, please send it onto your friends, loved ones, and casual accquaintances. Hugs for everyone!
Labels: adorkable, online video, projects:video
posted by Liz # 4:31 PM 4 Comments
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{ Saturday, August 4, 2007 }God. Damn. It. About, god, maybe as long as two years ago, something with my wireless router and my modem went kablooey, and in a triumph of laziness I decided to just unplug the router, toss it in a cupboard, and only have Internet access when I sat at my desk. This actually ended up working out great, because while I love the Internet, it isn't very conducive to my ability to focus. So when I needed to concentrate on writing, I could just move my laptop to the armchair in the corner, or the living room, or my armchair on the balcony -- leaving me web-less and unencumbered by incoming email and random Wikipedia searches. It worked out GREAT.
Yesterday, though, my roommate's girlfriend bore unto him a shiny white bundle of joy. By which I mean she got him a Wii. Wiis work fine offline, but they're even more flash once you hook them up to the internets. And since I wasn't using my router, I thought I'd hand it off to Paul so he could hook it up to his cable modem.
I failed to realize what this meant for me.
I have been sitting in my armchair in the corner for thirty minutes now.
They have not been particularly productive.
How do you tell OS X to forget a wireless password?Labels: in which our heroine
posted by Liz # 1:30 PM 0 Comments
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{ Friday, August 3, 2007 }One Quick Thing From Comic-ConLabels: adorkable, online video, projects:video
posted by Liz # 11:14 AM 0 Comments
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{ Thursday, August 2, 2007 }Blink and you'll miss it... ...but I now appear in a YouTube-featured podcast.
This podcast also contains the answer to the question "why haven't you talked about Comic-Con yet, Liz?" The answer is "I have been too busy talking about it." More later. posted by Liz # 10:33 AM 2 Comments
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