13 April 2010

Time Out

As dedicated readers of Brilliant in Context - all two of them - have no doubt realized by now, I have not updated in quite some time. There they sit, still and silent before the glowing screen of their computers, fiddling with their shirt sleeves and constantly hitting "Refresh," salivating at the prospect of a new blog post from yours truly. Only to be endlessly disappointed.

Well, buck up, assholes! I've been away because I've been busy. Not hellaciously busy, I admit, but enough to keep me away from my precious Internet outpost. A range of projects have occupied my time, and I will update you on them when they're ready to be discussed. The paranoid android in me is always hesitant to talk about anything until it's at least in the can and in editing. The entertainment industry, especially for us low-budget folks, is risky enough as it is. No reason to go pissing off Them What Controls Fate by blabbering about something that hasn't happened yet, only to see Them snatch it from your hopeful, foolish hands.

The other reason, of course, is that I haven't been inspired enough to compose a lengthy rant about anything. Sure, I've seen miracles that shocked my eyelids, and I've been catching up a bit on the Czech New Wave (The Firemen's Ball is still pretty damn funny), but there hasn't been a topic worthy my long, inane rants. Frankly, if I don't think I can churn out at least four bulky paragraphs worth of material, I'm not inclined to write a blog post. If a post isn't somewhat lengthy, I feel like it's not weighty in some way, and not worth the reader's time. This is stupid, of course - length is certainly no factor on quality, and most people probably prefer shorter posts in our go-go-go society. But if there's nothing for me to sink my teeth into, I feel like it lacks insight.

I am dumb.

I was hesitant to even begin writing this post. I thought about holding off until tomorrow and actually getting a full night of sleep instead. But I feel a rumbling in my belly to get something out there in the ether, so I'm compromising: I'm going to write this, but I'm not going to edit it. Much. And I won't provide links. Not many. (Looking back over this as I edit it yet again, I realize that the numerous links shine as beacons of wasted promises to myself.)

What's so damn important that I can't wait to waste your time? Well, it's the first of the projects I can tell you about. Hard Boiled Productions, which I co-founded with Chris Kapcia, shot a short film last weekend called Time In. It's the first thing we've filmed since Tumbler: The Boom, and we're very happy with how the footage turned out and are eager to begin editing it. You can see excellent behind-the-scenes photographs at our Facebook page, and we'll be putting up stills sooner or later. We didn't want to put those up right way for fear of giving away too much, but I at least wanted to launch this initial heads-up to all those people who wander by searching for comparisons of Troll 2 and The Room.

So what's it about? It's a simple story about two people separated by distance who are briefly reunited. I was envisioning a possible trailer, which would go something like this:

Shot of Woman with Title "A Woman"
Shot of Man with Title "A Man"
Woman Saying....Something, I Haven't Thought This Out Well Enough, with Title "A Game"
Man Saying Something Back with Title "A Film"
Title "Time In"

Yes, that's right. I consider myself a writer.

We arrived on location in an idyllic Brooklyn neighborhood at 9:30 am and finished shooting around 6:30 pm. It was relatively fast and painless as far as these things go thanks to a superb cast and crew who we are deeply indebted to. I don't have many battle stories for this one - a good thing, by the way - but when we were taking the subway home, we entered the station just as a train was arriving, and had to bash our way through the full-body turnstiles while laden with equipment, and of course I dropped my fucking Metrocard right at that moment when I was caught in the middle of it all and couldn't bend over, so I kicked it out through the turnstile and quickly picked it up on the run to make it onto the train in time.

It was more exciting live and in person. As most things are.