rockrboy

So let us see whats going on in my world. Still unemployed but constantly looking and applying. Still single but I'm coming to grips with that. While I was sitting around totally bored in jury duty the other day I started writing out some notes on a few screenplays. It would be smart to just focus on one at a time but I find that I'll be in the mood to write one thing and then a few hours later I'll be in the mood to write something else which is the reason I have like 6 ideas for screenplays sitting around right now and only the barest of work done on them. The only reason I haven't completed writing one of them is that I often don't feel inspired to write and I can only write when the feeling is right or its total shit.

I saw this documentary about the Dogme 95 film movement last night on the Sundance channel. Man that is the biggest load of shit ever. "We're going to be cool artists and be pure to the medium by making up all these absurd rules". Who the fuck cares how you make the thing as long as its good? Here are the rules:

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot).
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place).
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm. (standard tv 4:3 aspect ratio)
10. The director must not be credited.


Now each of these rules are dumb in their own right and I won't make this any longer by bitching about how fucked up each one is but not only do these rules limit the story you can tell but how well you can tell it. Why are genre movies unacceptable? Because Lars Vor Trier says so? Fuck him. His movies are shit. Basically the following of these rules will result in a (usually) dull, bad looking, bad sounding, bad movie. And I can understand being against the "A Film By..." credit, but not to credit the director is stupid. Why not credit the director? He's worked his fucking ass off and deserves at least a credit at the end of the movie that says "Directed by..."

Anyway I do need to get a bunch of these screenplays done cause I've been realizing lately I'm less and less happy with "Paradise City" and want to re-write the whole thing from scratch. Part of this realization came when I wanted to just film scenes to put together a trailer for investors and I was reading through it and was just like "wow this is shit". I know it has the makings of a good movie there, but its just not at the point I want it at. My biggest problem is structure. You can imagine the perfectly structured movie to be a straight line, not meaning that it needs to be direct and straightfoward but for this analogy it helps just to think of a straight line. Paradise City is kind of a wavy line. Its a little fuzzy where it should be more in focus. Anyway that's all for now.