BLANK STREET

"Blank Street" will premiere at the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, VA on March 6, 2011.

troof

the internet on my imac has been down now for a while.  this is a blessing and a curse.  i hate the internet almost as much as much as i hate television (but i do think there are some educational things to be found on the internet, television is a different story).  however, it is the bane of my existence when it comes time to get work done because i am only a click away from being completely and totally distracted for HOURS on end.  so, the fact that i cannot click away into a world of mindless blog posts and music downloading forces me to focus on my editing. 

shoot.

i have been struggling about what to write about since this is my first post in over a month i think.  i want to write about my friend ben who moved to thailand, i want to write about how the editing is going for the blank street film, i want to write about going to the north carolina state fair.  but tonight i specifically want to write about something that has been on my mind for almost a year now (caution, this entry takes some time investment...please commit).

first, watch this video (DO NOT CONTINUE READING WITHOUT WATCHING THE VIDEO)


Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

i have an issue with the concept of portraying "truth" with filmmaking.  from the start of a project, piece, film, whatever, the filmmaker is altering the truth.  the viewer will never see or experience the content of the film the same way they would have if they were actually present during the event/filming.  you are seeing something secondhand, and actually you are seeing something through the eyes of the filmmaker.  he/she has decided what angles to shoot at, what audio to focus on, which clips to put next to each other, and how to present the piece as a whole.

people argue all the time that it is simply impossible to capture "reality".  i agree with this to an extent.  i do think it is possible however, to capture a moment.

in this short film we shared a moment with jason wood as external viewers.  we sympathized with him and his friends because chances are, we have had to put a dog down before.  its something we share in common.  this is completely different than being with jason, in that vet room, holding onto oden as he breathed his last breath.  that would be the essence of this experience.  and that is something that the best camera and audio equipment will never capture.

that said, i think that filmmakers need to film more "moments" like this one so people can share them.

over the summer i worked on a film where a friend and i traveled the state and spent time talking to folks about any and everything.  we were documenting financial struggles ranging from recent job loss to homelessness.  we spent a day with a homeless man named Holladay in newport news.  Holladay took  us to a community of homeless folks who live under a bridge.  we spent some time there and filmed the location (with permission).  i could watch that footage every day for the rest of my life but i will never feel the same as when i was standing under that bridge staring at somebody's "home".

however, those "moments" that we captured with our camera will hopefully sink deep into the hearts of every person who sees our film.  hopefully those moments will inspire people to check out their own "under the bridge" community and see how they might be able to help out.

"last minutes with oden" offers a few incredible moments.  we can cry and feel joyous at the same time.  the best part to me is that both jason wood and oden are real.  jason is not an actor, hes also not a real guy being portrayed by an actor.  we are seeing and hearing from the real jason wood and the real oden. there is something very powerful about that.

you might say that this short film sums up my goals as an aspiring filmmaker, and thats why it means so much to me.  i want to film real moments, and share them with the world.

the concept of fighting has always been peculiar to me.  of course, in high school (and even now) i talked of beating up so and so for saying so and so about so and so...but that never really happened.  when it comes down to it, im just not a violent person (though some days i wish i was).

i got in my first (and only) fist fight in the third grade.  let me prepare a good visual for you...really get you into the scene:

its sometime in the middle of the afternoon on a warm, summer day.  i, along with all the kids from my class, are having a blast at raintree swim and racket club for lauren hrobachuk's birthday party.  there is a high dive, a snack bar, cake and presents, you know the drill.  one of the highlights (besides watching people over rotate their front flips and belly flop off the high dive) was the volleyball court.

let me explain volleyball right quick: volleyball is a game that only a few select people in the world know how to play.  the rest of us just do our best to smack the ball as hard as possibly to the other side of the net with complete and total disregard for direction, points of impact, number of hits, or point value.  typically, during a game of "pick up" volleyball you see the following types of people:
-the guy that played for a few years in high school but hasnt played for a while so he is sort of modest about the fact that he is very very very good at spiking the ball directly into your stomach.
-the guy who thinks that just because he is "athletic", he can pick up a volleyball and immediately be king of the court.  this guy usually wears a tank top or cut off tee.
-the guy who isnt really into sports but maybe used to play soccer in middle school and whose only reason for playing is so that the teams are even.
-the guy who is absolutely, down right terrible at volleyball in every way possible, and who doesnt even make an effort to go for the ball when it comes near him.  this guy usually talks smack the entire game because he must compensate for his inability to hit a ball.

those breakdowns are based off of my experience on a volleyball court with a bunch of dudes (and yes i am always the guy who used to play soccer).

back to the swim and racket club...on this particular day, i was involved in a relatively lively game of volleyball with a bunch of my classmates.  i identified the "down right terrible" player on the opposing team almost immediately.  lets call him toby.  toby spent the entire game instigating stuff with people on my team.  we were screaming back and forth at each other more so that we were actually playing volleyball.  finally, i snapped.  i sprinted under the net in a fit of rage and tackled toby onto the ground.  we rolled back and forth through the sand a few times grabbing and pushing and pulling.  i recall toby connecting one solid punch to the right side of my face before the landscaper dude yelled at us to break up the fight.  then it was over.

some parents had seen the ordeal and of course were on their way over to scold us.  fortunately my dad hadnt arrived to pick me up yet.  toby on the other hand was snatched right up out of the sand by his grandmother and screamed obscenities at me all the way through the parking lot until the car door closed.

i had gotten away with it!  i had my first fight, got punched in the face (technically that would mean i lost i guess, because i didnt punch him in the face), and i didnt get in any trouble.  that night my best friend ben and i camped out in my back yard to celebrate my victory.  we stayed up late giggling as eight year old boys do.  the following morning, my dad confronted me about the fight.  somehow he had found out (the man is a detective, i shouldnt have been surprised).  he made me call toby and apologize, so i did (but i didnt mean it). 

fifteen years later, would i reccommend fighting as a way to solve things?  of course not.  would i suggest getting involved in a pick up game of volleyball...ever...?  debatable. 
here are some things i would reccommend:
-getting punched in the face (at least once in life and ideally in the third grade when fists and muscles are smaller)
-mocking people on a volleyball court.
-belly flopping off the high dive.
-camping out in your back yard.
-giggling with friends.
-cake.
-presents.

a wish for things that work

coming up with the title for a blog is stressful.  you want it to be something witty, not boring, understandable for any readers, and of course cool.  my last blog was called "wood houses".  to be very honest, when it got to the "name  your blog" part of the set up on tumblr i turned around and read the first book i saw on my shelf (yea, i have a book about cool houses made out of wood, what of it?).  so when i got to the "name your blog" part of the blogger set up i turned around and read the titles of the two books on either side of "wood houses".  on the left is "get in the van", a book compiled by henry rollins about life on the road with black flag (and in my opinion a great way to get flagged by the branch of the fbi that looks for child predators on the internet...www.getinthevan.blogspot.com).  and on the right is "the audacity of hope", a book written by barack obama about hope or america or something like that (i never read it and i dont care to have any political theme or persuasion affiliated with the title of my blog).  

from there i scoped out some other book titles that may double as my new blog title.  "lord of the flies" wasnt going to cut it so i moved on to song titles from my itunes library.  at this point though i realized that just about everything i typed in as a potential title was already in use/unavailable.  how many blogspots are there in this world?  and how many people could also want their url to be www.appleshampoo.blogspot.com?  because guess what?  that url is already taken.  

anyways, i finally typed in "a wish for things that work" which is the second track off my favorite poison the well album "the opposite of december".  blogger accepted my title and i never looked back.  so here we are.  im sure that somewhere down the line i will have a much more interesting interpretation of my blog title and apply it to some sort of life struggle or childhood memory, but for now its just ripped off from poison the well.  

i left tumblr (for written stuff, i will still post videos and pictures etc. on tumblr im sure).  tumblr is superb for posting pictures, videos, links, songs, and even long, written out blog entries.  i just felt like i was taking up all the space on everyones dashboard every time i posted a long, drawn out blog entry.  tumblr is closer to twitter in terms of quick, shared links, thoughts, comments, pictures, etc.  its short and sweet.  with this blog i can write all i want and if you care to come over and read it, cool.  if not, oh well, you are missing out.  

so heres to a new blog.  i hope you enjoy my rants and raves because i certainly enjoy writing them.