Yesterday I shared a tale about a company (General Mills) that was too cheap to send us enough product for their own TV commercial so we had to go out and buy Raisin Nut Crunch and sell it back to
Clients…
…you can’t live with ’em, you can’t shoot ’em. The number of odd choices and decisions clients make never seems to end. Most of the times they do something because of how it affects (effects- the dumb filmmaker never remembers?)
Buster Keaton
To me the greatest of the early silent film comedians is Buster Keaton. Yes, Chaplin is brilliant and Lloyd is terrific, but Keaton gets to me in a way the others don’t. One reason for this, I think, is his
Selling Funny
For a lot of reasons- none that make any sense to me- advertising agencies are loath to sell commercials using humor. Jim and I have directed some mildly humorous spots that perhaps generate a grin or a smile, but nothing
The Places You’ll Go
When we were shooting the making of The Collector documentary a couple of weeks ago Jim and I were chatting with Pete Biaggi the cinematographer. Pete casually commented that one of the best things about this business is that you
Groucho
Thirty years ago last Saturday, the 18th, Groucho Marx died. I have been a fan of the Marx Brothers and Groucho in particular for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if there are any comic actors today
On the Road
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road turned 50 the other day. When I worked at the Museum of Broadcast Communications we had a great clip of Kerouac reading On The Road on the Steve Allen Show as Steverino made a little
Keys to the House
Because of my sister I am very sensitive to portrayals of handicapped people on film. No matter how good Daniel Day Lewis is in My Left Foot, or Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man or Sean Penn in I am Sam
Bright Lights and Baseball
Yesterday’s post about finding a path into the film business has me thinking about my own path and how I owe an unexpected thanks to my great aunt Amy. Aunt Amy taught me a lot of things one of which
Navel Gazing
It was an interesting week for the dumb filmmaker. As you saw in the previous posts I was simultaneously shooting a film and teaching eight incoming students. If it was 3:30, I must be teaching, 4pm, filmmaking and back and
