SFA Presents...

This Friday marks our first big push into the world. Watch this:



We'll be hosting our first "big deal" screening in the Wilk on BYU campus at 7pm. I'm a little bit excited for it, because it represents the sum of our efforts up to now to try and become legitimized as an organization. This is a long and arduous process, as anyone knows who has tried to start up a club or business of any kind.

A little while ago, I published an article on Rhombus discussing the way I feel about the beginnings of this organization, and my involvement therein. We might see the first real fruit of what we're trying to do this Friday night. We all (the other people I'm working with) have our fingers crossed pretty tightly.

I think it'll go well. I think we'll pack the room we reserved, which only seats about a hundred and twenty people. And I think we'll move on to bigger spaces and fill them in the future as well.

I'm passionate about this stuff. I'm not getting paid, and I'm not getting any kind of academic credit. Neither is anyone else who is working with me. But we all care quite a lot about screening student films--about getting the hard, quality work of our peers out to the general public. Films need to be seen to matter. And we want the films the talented students in our program make to matter.

If you've got half a second, check out the SFA's official blog (updated weekly by Lauren Laws, bless her): byuSFA.blogspot.com - you can keep up with what we're doing by following that blog. That's an important note, considering how infrequently I post here (SORRY! ...sort of.)

***OH! And if you have any films that you want the SFA to screen in the future, upload them onto Vimeo, and send the link here: sfa.council@gmail.com

Frustration^3

I get frustrated when people get frustrated over the things I'm frustrated about.

Let me explain.

I say I don't like something, or something bothers me, and then someone else is upset or offended that I feel that way. That sucks. I'll dislike what I want to dislike. And I'll be as convinced as I want to be that I'm right.

I'm thinking mainly of the fact that certain people (who I love, but sometimes frustrate me--if you're reading this, you know who you are) are offended that I openly and rigidly state that New Moon is a bad movie. It's not well-acted, designed, shot, directed, edited, or written. Those things are true. You can disagree all you want, and that's fine. But don't be offended when I won't concede that this film might be "good" by some other definition. I don't think that it's good in any way, and I will not be upset if you disagree. I promise.

The thing is, it's at least possible that those who take offense at my opinions are more or less acting, ironically, defensively. They know it's a bad film, and they're ashamed to like it. I say, DON'T BE ASHAMED. I like some bad movies, and I don't care if people think I have poor taste because of it. You can still be a good, useful, intelligent human being and like a really terrible movie here and there. It's OK. But don't be upset when I frankly state that the movie you love sucks, because I'm certainly not upset about it.

In other news...

...well, no. That's actually all I really wanted to say.

Oh, but before I go, I need to mention how awesome and cool YNAB is. I've never used any other budgeting software because everything else I've seen looks too complicated and expensive. Yes, both. But since I've started using YNAB, I'm at least a little bit smarter with my money. And I found out that a little bit smarter goes a long way with cash. I'm mainly writing this for a chance to get the newest version for free, I'll be honest. But it's also a product I feel like I can honestly and enthusiastically endorse. Here, again (in case you missed it) is the link: YNAB (You Need a Budget)

Sometimes, you just gotta

BLOG.

Listen. I'm sorry. Not for the fact that I haven't blogged in a million years (six weeks), but that I don't really have anything to say right now. Just a desire to say it.

My life is absurdly, profoundly, obscenely busy, and I'm barely keeping up with the weekly commitment I've made to Rhombus. Poor them. Because I'm awesome.

I DO have good news. A week and a half ago, we finished shooting "One Item or Less." That means that it's at least possible it will be done (meaning ready to SCREEN) in December. That's the goal. And if not that, then January. JANUARY. I'm not sure how, um...good...it is, but I think that it will be engaging to some degree. The footage is really pretty, and some of the concepts we've come up with for sound design and transitions are very, for lack of a better word, neat.

Can I say how incredible this has all been? By the way? Writing a screenplay, organizing a crew, taking the script through pre-visualization and pre-production, casting it, finding a place to shoot it, getting everything pulled together...and then shooting it! It's quite wonderful. And completely, consumingly addictive. I want to do this forever.

I would talk a little bit about the films I've seen recently, but why? You can read my reviews on Rhombus.

What WON'T be on Rhombus is that I watched (with a group of very attractive people) Nacho Libre again last night. If you haven't seen it, fix that. And if you have seen it, but only once, and you didn't like it too well, then watch it again. If you have seen it at least twice...it's pretty great, isn't it? Jared Hess is the man.

And speaking of him, Gentlemen Broncos comes out this weekend in Salt Lake, at the Broadway Theater. That's the most important information I have to share, assuming you didn't already know it. Critics almost universally hate it, and I can't wait to see it.

Anyway.

On a parting, unrelated note, I (and I'll provide no context for this statement at all) love girls. Women. Female human beings. They're awesome.

That is all.

Rhombus

Friends, family, people who I don't know but are no less beautiful for it,

I have just agreed to start writing for a new online magazine called Rhombus. It's local--BYU students run it. It's also striving desperately to replace another local publication called Square Magazine, which was a little bit like Watchtower, left at your door, only vaguely interesting, and suffocatingly self-aggrandizing.

I have a review of the film 9 posted as of yesterday, so go check it out.

The sad part of this tale is that I probably won't be spending much time at all posting on this here blog as long as I'm writing for Rhombus. I want to see that online magazine succeed, so I'll be focusing all of my efforts and sweet skeeels in marketing toward getting that title out there.

Every once in a while, I'll probably throw up a post about something Rhombus probably doesn't care about. But my reviews, and my political views, and my thoughts about important things (of which I have SO many), have now all found themselves a new home.

So go there. And read my review. And then read other stuff too. Cause they got pretty good writers over there, and other pretty cool stuff.

One Item or Less

It's official, I'm making a movie.

Last Thursday, I and my fledgling crew had our first production meeting for the short film "One Item or Less." I wrote the screenplay, and I'm going to direct the film. Wyatt Strain will be producing, and A. Todd Smith is my cinematographer, which means this little movie's gonna be PRETTY.

Here's the short synopsis I wrote for IndieGoGo, and which I don't feel like rewriting. Ever. (Do you know how difficult it is to write a decent synopsis? I'll tell you: very.)

A mysterious caller gives a man a choice. What one thing would he save if his house was burned to the ground? It is an important question because the caller has promised to do just that.

And the tagline: "What one thing is more important than anything else?"

How cool is that? Right? Eh...? EH? (I'll tell you...)

Here are three links that are important:

Facebook Group

Facebook Page

IndieGoGo Page

This little film, as insignificant as it is in the grand scheme of anything, is nevertheless a bit of a big deal for me. I've never directed anything beyond the one to three minute exercises we do in our film classes. In other words, I don't know what I'm doing. All I've got is about fifteen hundred pounds of theory packed into my skull and an absurd belief in my own abilities. It's bound to turn out badly, but if I can create a short film that even some people enjoy, then I will feel encouraged to continue on in my aspirations to become a bona fide director. If not...I suppose I'll...well, I'll probably keep trying.

"Never give up! NEVER surrender!" (Name that film and you get a candy bar. It's true--just ask Kelsie. Right Kelsie? How was your Reeses?)

Mudbison

I'm not huge into the local music scene. Let's be honest with each other. Most of the local bands in Provo are...not very good. Certainly, there has occasionally passed through some very talented artists, but there seems to be an overall aesthetic of drab unoriginality to most of what passes for homegrown music here. Everybody is an acoustic-guitar-playing, Jack Johnson wannabe. Or they're...I don't know, Relient K? I mean, I have nothing against Relient K, but you really only need one of them. And the same goes for Mr. Johnson.

Anyway, there's one band that blows me away. Well, two, but one of them isn't quite local anymore. These two bands are RuRu (Isaac Russell), and Mudbison (Spencer Russell). These boys are TALENTED. I'm not talking clever or charismatic--they have serious talent. They are musicians of the highest order and songwriters to be reckoned with.

Isaac has gotten himself signed with a major label, and no longer qualifies to be considered part of the local scene.

But Spencer (of Mudbison) is just getting warmed up. You can still see him locally on a pretty regular basis. I tell you this with some urgency, noting that they probably won't stick around small time for long.

Here's an important article.

And here's a sweet song (which also happens to be a Youtube video):



I'll admit that the reason I know about these guys is because they are the sons of one of my favorite (FAVORITE) professors, Tom Russell, who teaches many important film classes.

Mudbison is a big deal. Go see them, if you can, on the 25th of this month at the Velour. They're wonderful.

NEW!

First, here's a quick review of a movie I saw last November (the Third in my Netflixing series.) No, hang on, even before that, I feel like I should admit that I won't be reviewing every movie that has come into my house from that intrusively marketed company (I really feel like once I sign up for the service, I should stop getting pop-up advertisements for it). I'll just go over the good to great ones I missed.

Shotgun Stories. I really, really enjoyed this one. It's naturalistic and slow, which is something that's very difficult to pull off well. The characters are all southern, white trash types. They hold dead end jobs or no jobs at all, and they barely get along with each other. But the story is powerful, and the themes it illustrates are extremely meaningful and complex.

On the outside, it's about a family feud, hence the title. But it ends up being about transcending the baser instincts of revenge and pride. The ending is beautiful. I recommend this film. It's not for everyone, being as slow as it is. And it's definitely gritty and heavy. There's not a lot of joy in this film. But I still, very highly, recommend this film.

So what's "NEW": I'm going to only be posting once every week in the coming months. School started and I no longer have time to just blog away all the time (much as I love it). So that means cutbacks, people. Don't blame me. Blame life.