Overheard while waiting in line at the bank...

August 19, 2008

A blind man said to a very old woman: "You must be built like a gunslinger."

* * *

Yen is in town to finalize deliverables for Ciao, which until Warner's surprise announcement the other day was going to be released head to head against the new Harry Potter movie. Anyway, I sat in yesterday as notes were taken for a pan-and-scan session that's occurring at this very moment. The very act of wondering why, in this day and age, we need a pan-and-scan of the film bores me to tears. Someone wake me up when we're back in the 21st Century and films are mastered for really big screens and embeddable windows and nothing much in between. And that, then, would be my cue to breathlessly segue into last week's still-current news that thanks to Matt and the folks at Cinetic, Whit Stillman's timeless Metropolitan can be viewed right now, right here, on the whim of your own choosing!

Posted by David Lowery at 1:36 PM | Comments (3)

Old Favorites

August 18, 2008

We've been watching music videos all day. I always end up back at this one.

I've got so much wrapped up in this thing that there's no point in even starting to write about it.

Posted by David Lowery at 3:09 AM | Comments (2)

Criterion Brand

August 14, 2008

When I first saw Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain! on the big screen, with all the grandeur and bombast of its orchestral accompaniment and live narration, I was fairly certain I wouldn't ever want to see it again under any other conditions. Now, as has so often been the case in the past, I'm going to eat my words and thoughts and deep dark secrets, because the Criterion Collection has this past week released a robust and hearty edition of the film on DVD! I haven't picked it up yet, but I understand that it's a typically outstanding treatment of the second-most recent masterpiece from Winnipeg's favorite prodigal son. Meanwhile, my initial impressions upon seeing it last summer, can be read here.

Also released this week: an excellent interview with that film's cinematographer, Ben Kasulke, over at Short End Magazine. Ben also shot Lynn Shelton's two feature films and half of Joe Swanberg's Nights And Weekends. And towards the end of this year, it seems, I'll be joining him on a mysterious, Herzog-ian excursion into the jungles of South America. It'll be one last feature film endeavor for a year that's turned out to be rife with them (five, including my own). I wonder where my passport is.

Posted by David Lowery at 8:17 PM | Comments (2)

Whale I Wish I Was

August 13, 2008

Posted by David Lowery at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

Running Uphill (literally, at 8AM, every morning)

August 12, 2008

We've been keeping busy here, writing and editing and, yes, going running every day. Yesterday was a mad succession of phone calls and teleconferences, fueled by the buzz of one really great development meeting, and then I had to switch over to New York time temporarily to get that trailer we'd been working on ready for the band's press release this morning. Said trailer is now online at the band's site:

Now we're moving on to the documentary itself. Searching for a through line, as well as any stray audio that might sync up to all the 16mm footage. We have a few really cool ideas about how to handle this film, to make it something more than just another band-on-tour documentary - but then again, we're only one day into watching, categorizing and subclipping all the footage, so it could go anywhere. The film's director, Mike Torres, has given us an unprecedented amount of freedom - our direction, more or less, is to turn all this footage into a great film. We shall endeavor to do just that...

Meanwhile, I've got a great film of my own to polish up and get ready for scoring. And two great scripts to finish writing, and two great novels to finish reading. And some great memories to curl up inside of, all cozy like. Greatness abounds...except in the financial sector. That part's not so great. But when is it ever?

Posted by David Lowery at 9:21 PM | Comments (1)

"To call it uncompromising..."

August 7, 2008

I know I've written before of my cinematic matriculation in the pages of Roger Ebert's Movie Home Companion; I practically learned to read with the dog-eared copy on my grandfather's bookshelf. So it is that one of my more sentimental goals as a filmmaker is to one day read a review, by him, of one of my movies, and so too is it that I felt quite the vicarious thrill this evening when I happened upon his review of Frownland. It literally sent chills down my spine, much in the same way that, in my youth, my heart would stop upon unexpectedly seeing a girl I fancied turn a corner. Does this mean I have a crush on Ronnie's film? It just might. I've certainly been in less functional relationships....

Anyway, the cause célèbre is that Frownland opens its run at the Facets Cinematheque in Chicago today. If you're in town, and you haven't seen this film yet - you know the drill, friends, you do indeed.

Posted by David Lowery at 10:52 PM | Comments (3)

We Are Hardly Men

August 6, 2008

It wasn't as smooth this time around. Sample dialogue from yesterday:

TOBY: Are we back on the highway?

DAVID: ...yeah.

TOBY: How did that happen?

Our increasingly delirious jaunt to Los Angeles climaxed around 2AM this morning with a blow-out in the desert. We had to ease our way down an on-ramp to get off the freeway, and then put our manhood to the test by trying - and failing, miserably - to take the wheel off. Thank goodness for non-judgmental roadside assistance folks.

We spent the night in desiccate motel that time forgot and, looking back on it now, we never seemed to entirely wake up. We're still not awake. We arrived at our destination, and I promptly bought a plane ticket to New York.

Posted by David Lowery at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)