Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Posts To Come - Truth, Lies and 35mm Film

Up until now, it's been pretty much a post or two per project.  We are now getting into a period where I did a number of features, and each of them will need multiple posts to cover.

Many of these films got limited, or in some cases, no release.  Some did better.

There is a line from Steely Dan's Deacon Blues that goes "They got a name for the winners in the world.  I want a name when I lose."  I don't consider these films losers, but many will not show up in any book on the indie film world.

They were the effort of just as much sweat, tears, and imagination as those films that went into indie lore,  and to quote Willy Loman's widow, attention must be paid.

I have tried, and will continue to try, to be positive.  I hate "reality" TV that is about casting villains.  You follow anyone around on a set for 12-20 hours a day, six days a week, and I guarantee they will come off as a jerk, myself definitely included.

Still, it would be dishonest for me to portray every project I worked on as a love fest.  That's just not real.

From here on in, don't assume that first name only means I saw someone in a negative light.  It just means that if I'm covering someone over a long period of time, I'm bound to say something negative, and this blog is not about bringing people down.

When a biographer came to an older John Huston to do the book called The Hustons (which I've mentioned), Huston gave the author his contacts, and sent him off with this:

'Tell them to be honest.  If they thought I was a sonofabitch let them just say it.'

I will be breaking the projects, starting with Lucky Stiff, into multiple posts, and they will be coming every few days - sometimes on back-to-back days.

This is truly Living in MY Oblivion.  This is my experience in the low-budget film world.  This is the reason I started this blog, to make sure there is a record of some of the great people and hard-fought projects that would otherwise go unnoticed.

I hope you enjoy.

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