My obsession with Memory and how it works has been with me for more than a decade. I walked away from my fixation on memory a few years ago and moved towards stories focusing on self-doubt and self-acceptance. I seem to have fallen back down the rabbit hole of memory obsession and have restarted my research. The main trigger for this was the grant applications I’ll be working on, which ask questions about your films background and the research you’ve done. To fulfill some of the requirements I’m going to have to restart my memory studies and take better notes this time. The strangest thing happen on the road back to memory research, as I stood in the library isles, I was struck by memories of looking though all these books years ago. I could see myself piling up twenty books and taking them to a table to evaluate which ones I might take home with me. As I google searched around I remembered most of the pages I was sent to. I had some very strong memories of my past research into memory. All the questions came back. Who would we become when we forget who we are? Are we the sum of our memories and choices or is our fate predetermined? When it comes to memories most books don’t have answers, instead they provide you with theories. The books are full of ideas that take guesses on how our minds work. They come to conclusions on what the role memory plays in the development of our personalities. Answers that lead to more questions. In the end the sad truth may be that my strong obsession is based on fact that there isn’t a clear answer to my questions. Some projects take you days, some take you months but as a filmmaker most projects take you years. The process of grant applications and preproduction can take two to three to five years. Longer in some cases. A lifetime of prepping for projects that may never get made. For the next little while I’m lucky enough to be able to create new memories about my obsession with memory. Being able to look into your obsessions and to then be able to revisit them over the years is a gift.
Spending Time with old Friends
Classic Film Series:
A series of classic film titles will be screened in a digital format from September 2010 – August 2011. I got to see The Maltese Falcon on a giant screen for $5. It had been years since I’d seen it in school and I barely remember a thing about it. When the film started and Humphrey Bogart filled the screen I was amazed how well the film had been restored and converted to a Digitally projected HD format. What stood out the most for me was how smart and funny the dialogue was.
Joel Cairo
You always have a very smooth explanation...
Sam Spade
What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?
Of course some things were dated but the film is seventy years old and it’s amazing how much of it still holds up. This series of classic film titles will be screened until August 2011. Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Wizard Of Oz (1939), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Sound of Music (1965), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Spartacus (1960). All on the big screen for $5. I’ll see you in line.
Camera Playtime... Camera Test #1
All These Things... THE NORTH from Pasquale Marco Veltri on Vimeo.
Over the next little while I'll be doing a series of camera tests to help me find a video camera that works the best for what I need to do. In camera test number one I shot a quick music video for ‘All These Things I Hide’ by the North. I tested the Panasonic VHX200 in different contrast and lighting situations to see what I could get away with. I let the colors bleed as I under and over exposed to see if I could bring the footage back. I’m okay with the results but I found the camera to be a little unforgiving in highlights and shadows. Up next is the Sony EX3 or the Canon 5D. I’m afraid of Bokeh and it’s completely over used but I’m willing to do some tests with the 5D. I’ve used the EX3 a few times but never in a situation where I could play around and test what happens. I’m looking for good blacks and some highlight detail when possible but with most video cameras that’s too much to ask for. We’ll see what happens. Thanks to everyone who helped out with this camera test and special thanks to the North for the use of their song.
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) is a low-budget Western masterpiece from director William A. Wellman. This anti-Western is a morality play that lacks the action of a typical Western. What struck me the most about the film was how simple and elegant it was. No flying cameras or cutting to a close up a every time a new character starts speaking. In current films there is a tendency to cut all the time and when we don’t cut there is a steady-cam flying around for no reason. In the Ox-Bow Incident elegant and simple compositions are used to let the story play out in the frame.
Characters are lined up in a formation that leads your eyes to the character who is speaking.
In this shot simple design elements are used to introduce a new character. We automatically know not to trust this new character by his placement in the frame.
In this shot we have the accused characters lined up in the foreground.It seems so simple but at the same time controlled and elegant.
The shadows Horses disappearing into the distance.
Here Henry Fonda has his eyes blocked by the rim of a hat to reinforce the main theme of justice being blind.
As simple as these images may seem, they work because of their simplicity. We live in a new 3D film world where every movie must out do the last films explosions. Looking back at films from the past is the best way I have found to learn and grow. There are no giant robots punching each other but each story is told with a camera pointing towards actors. A camera that is pointed at the story.
Measuring Tape Girl : The Self-Esteem Workshops
The films of the 1940’s
I have grown tired of sequels and explosions so I’ve gone backwards. Decade by decade, I’m traveling back in time to learn from the films of the past. If you have ever wondered where the Coen brothers screw ball comedies come from well look no further. They were influenced by the screwball comedies from the 1940’s. In particular the work of writer/director Preston Sturges was a major influences on the future of filmmaking. Preston Sturges was the first Hollywood scriptwriter to direct his own work. When you have the time take a look at The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan’s Travels (1941) or maybe even Hail the Conquering Hero (1944).
Preston Sturges, George Cukor, William Wyler, John Ford, Orson Welles, John Huston, Frank Capra, William Wellman, Billy Wilder, Hitchcock and the list goes on and on. This may take me some time but it’s always a good idea to look back at the past before you move forward.
Stealing has been rebranded as Sharing
Copyright is dead. I accept it. We live in a digital age where any form of online media can be download in a few minutes. It seems like a force of nature that you can’t question. The sky is blue because it’s blue. You never wonder why the sky is blue. Everyone just accepts it and that’s it. Digital Copyright will always be a few steps behind everyone’s ability to copy, paste and download digital media. When we used to buy things, the things we bought came in a box. It was an object that you had to pay money for. Now that digital media no longer comes in a package, it is much easier for people to think it is something that you don’t have to pay for. In someways it is a generational issue. If you are over thirty you are more likely to have a blue ray or DVD collection. You might even still buy CD’s. When you buy a movie you are interested in having a box and owning an object. There are generations of people who have never had a collection of CD’s or DVDs. It’s much easier for you to disassociated value with a movie or album if it only exists in digital form. Years ago the music industry went though the growing pains of digital locks and legal actions against illegal downloads. Eventually everyone basically gave up on digital locks and legal action because it meant that the content producers were suing the consumers of their products. Surprisingly that didn’t go over so well. The movie industry is now going through the same revolution. Early this year, the Producers of the Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker” filed copyright lawsuits against people who illegally shared the movie on peer-to-peer networks. http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20006314-261.html It seems that no one in the Movie Industry was watching what happened in Music digital file sharing over the last decade. Digital file sharing and any type of illegal downloading is stealing. As a filmmaker it is hard to accept that anyone can just download a film that took you several years of your life to finish. Especially when you really haven’t made much money for it yet. I did few searches and two of the films I’ve made in the last few years can be download illegally on a few different file sharing networks. A film I made last year called ‘A Day in the Life’ has a distributor and it is for sale: http://www.ouatmedia.com//film.php?filmid=9815 If you can download the film for free, then who’s going to pay for it? At the same time, I accept that this is way the world works. After a few days of being upset, I now consider it to be part of the marketing process for the films I make. In the music industry full albums seem to always be put online just weeks before the official release date. Is this due to the demand for the new product or is it a good way to market the release of your new album? Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ album was leaked to the internet two weeks before it’s release date. http://tinyurl.com/2bkhtmv Drake’s new album was leaked online, just before it’s release. http://tinyurl.com/3859c6h Coincidence? I’ve tracked back my “leaks” to some small international festivals. You never really know what film festivals do with the film screeners you send them. I’m not saying any specific film festival did something wrong but one of them must of lost track of some films and then whoever “found” those films, puts them online. I don’t think I’m in a position where I should leak my new film ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ to the Internet. Eventually I can see major film studios leaking blockbuster online a few days before the film is released, for marketing purposes, just as the music industry is doing now. The huge difference is that I’m not Eminem or Drake or a major film studio. I make tiny Canadian short films that are considered successful if you can come close to breaking even. These short films are forms of marketing and having them show up online in file sharing sites is a sign that the marketing is working. It still does not feel right. I accept it and will call it marketing. As a small Canadian Filmmaker you juggle with bankruptcy after most productions until you see a return on your investment. It is very difficult to make any money on any form of digital media when everyone can just share it with each other and not pay. We are sharing movies, music and digital media with our friends. Sharing has become a new political correct term that makes everyone believe stealing digital media is okay. There are generations of people stealing digital media and there are generations of people to come who will never consider peer to peer sharing of digital files to be stealing. Stealing has been re-branded as sharing. All we can do is adapt and continue to make films. All we can do is accept simple truths. The sky is blue because light tend to bend towards the blue spectrum as it travels through water vapor in the sky. We steal movies, music and digital media because we don’t consider to be stealing.
Magazine Articles and Self-Esteem Workshops
Everyone is a Media Channel
We all broadcast our lives to the internet. We all do it to varying degrees but everyone does it. Our lives are sent out to the world with tweets, blogs, facebook posts, youtube videos and the list goes on and on. At this point privacy is dead. I don’t know if we should blame Paris Hilton or the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. This new openness is wonderful in some ways but confusing in others. It’s wonderful to connect and share information and videos but at what point does personal branding cross the line and become corporate? When do we fall into the same corporate traps of trying to stay on message. When personal anecdotes sound more like talking points you memorize for interviews; it may be time to give your head a good shaking. Warhol’s prediction that we would all be famous for 15 minutes has come true but in a warped way. 15 minutes has become 1 to 15 seconds. This pseudo fame has been transformed into an online whisper that others can choose to listen to or they can tune out in an instant. The biggest issue with online pseudo fame is that most young people don’t understand the difference between their real life and their online life. We have become our own online avatars. My current marketing bible ‘Six Pixels of Separation’ by Mitch Joel simples tells us that ‘You are Media’. You provide the content for the internet, you are the media. I’ve avoided a Youtube channel for sometime because I didn’t want to have people go to Youtube and not visit my webpage but at the same time I’ve been uploading things to a youtube channel that has no name or direct connection to me. Mr. Marketing, Mitch Joel, tells us to ‘Embrace your digital footprint’. Over the next few months I will make an effort to embrace my digital footprint and take ownership of all my digital channels. There is no privacy in Personal Branding. You are transparent and there is no where to hide. I’ve stop hiding but I’m not as transparent as I should be. Channel after channel of online content must connect back and forth to all other channels. These online channels loop back and forth, allowing people to follow the trail in any direction they choose. Broadcasting your life over the internet and trying to retain some privacy can be a bit like walking a tight rope. At this point I give up my privacy. I surrender. I’m not going to start posting my PIN Numbers and passwords just yet but I now accept the simple truth that Everyone is a media channel.
Viral Expansion Loops?
In my continuing attempt to understand marketing I came across a new term - Viral Expansion Loops.....? A Viral Expansion Loop is “a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond.” Examples of Viral Expansion Loops are Youtube, Facebook, Linkedin, twitter..... the list goes on. It is also possible to create your own social nextwork using Ning. A company that lets you create a Viral Expansion Loop is one of the best example of a Viral Expansion Loop. Using Ning you can create your own social network? You can create your very own Facebook. Pick a topic that interests you, then create some content and begin propagating your own Social Network using Ning Nets. Who needs a web page anymore when you can become your own social networking site: http://about.ning.com/product/index.php
This makes my experiments with mini-viral events seem like child’s play. Here I go again, becoming amazed by how much I don’t know. Why you would want to be your own facebook is the real question? Or maybe the question is why not? If you have the time and a specific interest in a topic, build a social network using Ning Nets and the people will come. Think of a camera club, a hockey pool or an internal company social network that can help you work on virtual team building and communication? I was lead down this rabbit hole by pages 71 to 76 of Mitch Joel’s book - Six Pixels of Separation. All this from one paragraph at the bottom of page 71. I’ll have to stick with ripples and mini-viral events. As crazy and interesting as Viral Expansion Loops are, I know when I’m swimming in waters that run a little too deep.
For more on Viral Expansion loops:
http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/the-viral-expansion-loop
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html?page=0%2C0
Lost in Paris
Sometimes when you get lost, you’re lost because you need to be. There’s a reason for it. After a few weeks of riding on a crazy film festival roller coaster, I think I need a few days to be lost. And if you have to be lost, being lost in Paris isn’t really all that bad. As distracting as cobble stone streets and 200 year old buildings can be, I’m still lost in thought. I’ve learned a lot in the last few weeks but it may take years for what I’ve learned to sink in. The main lesson for me is how much more there is to do. I can take two or three days to get lost in Paris but then it’s back to work. I need to work about one thousand time harder than I have in the past. Everyone in the world is a Filmmaker. Everyone in the world has a film to sell. I know this and accept this now, but I must move past it and focus on what’s next. Taking baby steps over the last ten years has lead me here. To a screening in a thematic program in the Cannes festival. But what does that really mean. The main lesson to take away from the last few weeks for me is that the short film market is beyond super-saturated. One thousand, seven hundred and twenty films were in this years short film market. Those films are just the ones that made it to the film market at Cannes. Out of those 1720 films, some are selected to get screenings in the thematic programs. Thousands and thousands of films compete for attention at other festivals around the world. If you think about the amount of films out there you can lose your mind. In the end you can only compete with yourself and with your last project. I can only improve on my last film and move forward. This time, the way forward my not involve another short film. I’ll have to find a way to make something longer. The next baby step is a big one, but there’s no other direction to go in unless I take a step backwards. The puzzle pieces are slowly coming together, but the only issue is that I still don’t know what image all these pieces come together to form. Building a puzzle, piece by piece, leads to an ever changing image that never really comes into focus. I’m sure that I’ll have this all figured out in next ten to twenty to thirty years. For now all I can do is walk around these cobblestone streets and be lost for as long as I’m allowed to be.
The Train to Paris
Sleeping on a train has never been an option for me. Too many things to think about. Too many questions. Every time I’m almost asleep the sun hits my eyes again and I get lost in the blurry green vineyards as they fly by. This roller coaster keeps moving but it might be time to get off and figure some things out. Everything has been so busy that there’s never anytime to think. When you can’t sleep on a six hour train ride to Paris, all you can do is think. A few days ago I posted a thank you to everyone who’s ever help me.
“Today and every day of my life, I stand on the shoulders of everyone who has ever helped me. I stand on the shoulders of every member of my family and of all of my friends. Without you, I am nothing.”
I’ve always felt that. I’ve always know that. In a different life, five or six years ago, I had a job that my brain forced me to leave. On the last day of work I went into the supervisors office and told him we had to talk about something serious. Something very important. He went into business mode and prepared his best politically correct response. I looked at him with a straight face and said “It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining and we’re all lucky to be alive”. To which his response was: “I’ll make a note of that.”
I know that this train travels from Cannes to Paris, but I’m still lost. The next direction to go in is a little more than unclear. The main lesson that I have always kept with me is that I am only at the beginning of understanding how much I do not know. I am always amazed by the amount of things I don’t know. All we can do is keep learning and growing. As I sit on this train and it moves me to Paris, I can only be sure of one thing: It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining and we’re all lucky to be alive.
Marché du Film
Measuring Tape Girl screened today at 11:30am in the Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival. It screened in a thematic program of short films selected by a Danny Lennon of the National Film board of Canada. There are so many different levels to the Film Festival that it’s hard to explain or understand how they organize everything but here’s what I’ve figured out. There are the 20 or so Feature films that are in Competition, that’s the easy part. They get the red carpet and most of the hype that goes with the festival. An out of competition section allows for a certain amount of films to have screenings. Everything from big Hollywood blockbusters to short films. Underneath all this glitz and glamour is a film market. Sales agents, distributors and everyone else pushing, selling and buying films. There are over 900 feature films in the market and about 1720 in the market for short films which is called the short film corner. There are a series of small screening booths in the short film corner and in the feature film market. Filmmakers can book these screening rooms ahead of time and arrange for sales agents or distributors or whoever to see their films and maybe buy rights to them. It wouldn’t be possible for anyone to watch all 1720 films in the short film market so these thematic programs are selected by film programers to narrow things down for festival programers and film buyers. These programs of short films are screened in the Marché du Film. Measuring Tape Girl was selected into a Thematic Program called ‘Most People Live in China’. I forgot to ask Danny what he exactly meant by that. There are a lot of parities in Cannes. A lot of films and a lot of parties. You really have to pick and choose where you go because it would be very easy to never sleep in Cannes.
Every country has a pavilion which provides a home base for filmmakers from that country. It’s where they have meetings, parties and it’s safe haven from all the craziness. These international pavilions line the beach area near the Palais de Festival and you can walk out to the beach from each Pavilion. On the other side of the docks are the party yachts with production company names and logos. You can get lost in the casino maze like design of the whole area. I really haven’t figured it all out just yet. I’m still a little dizzy from all this new information. For now I’m just going to find a place in the shade and hide for a bit. It can really get hot in this Measuring Tape Blazer.
Lost in a sea of Filmmakers
Lost in a sea of Filmmakers, I tread water and refuse to swim to shore. The Cannes Film Festival is the epicenter of hype and publicity for film. I’ve never seen so many cameras and so many salesmen. Every filmmaker becomes a salesmen at Film Festivals. Everything is hyped, everyone has an angle and everyone has a film. My film ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ screens on Friday, May 21st in Marché du Film. Palais F at 11:30am.
Walking around in a Blazer made of Measuring Tape at the Cannes Film Festival changes your perspective on the world around you. I’ve spent most of my life hiding behind a camera. Using a camera to tell stories and record images. I’m still a little uncomfortable being in front of the camera. The first hour was a little rough. I didn’t know what to except or even where to go. The Cannes Film Festival is a little bit of a maze. The core of the Cannes Film Festival occurs in a few interconnecting buildings that send you up and down escalators as you walk from Film Market to Film Market. As a filmmaker the world is your market and the world doesn’t always go to you. So what’s an introverted film geek to do? I didn’t know at first but then eventually came up with the idea of becoming a visual metaphor for my film. A visual representation of what was for sale. It allowed me to make an impact on people without saying a word. Some people smiled, some people were too cool to react and some people got excited and talked to me about my film. It was a great way of finding people who were actually interested in talking to you. People from all over the world came up to me and talked to me about my Measuring Tape Blazer. From a distance I was a story to tell your friend. At closer inspection you got a story, a marketing DVD, a business card and links to all things Measuring Tape online. I really didn’t know where to go or who to talk to. We just went because we had a screening. There where thousands of filmmakers all pushing their latest film, all reaching out to find an audience. The Cannes Film Festival is like a giant tidal wave of Filmmakers from every country in the world, all marketing their newest projects, all asking to be measured. Asking to be Judged. I’m not sure how much of an impact the Measuring Tape Blazer is making and I am completely making this up as I go along, but I am learning how to swim.
Measuring Tape Marco
This years marketing push involves something a little crazier than normal. I wanted to find a way to become a visual metaphor that represented my new film. For the next year I’ll be using the image above for promotional purposes. Over the years I’ve been a little too shy and quiet about my films. I feel that in some ways I’ve had to become a new person to promote my work properly. Having a costume to put on really helps you become someone new. I’ve created a marketing superhero and his name is Measuring Tape Marco. He’s going to do all the interviews and go to all the film festivals wearing his superhero outfit so that I don’t have to. Measuring Tape Marco will have to perform and act out all talking points that tell people what the film is about. At first it was a bit of a struggle to find a way to promote my new film but in the end the answer was hiding in the meaning of film. In ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ a young woman approaching her thirties turns to online video blogging as a means of expressing her doubts and fears. She creates an alter ego named ‘Measuring Tape Girl’, which she uses as a self-defense mechanism to measure herself against others. A Measuring Tape Blazer will be what I use to become a new person. Someone who stands up and tells everyone about his new film. ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ wishes to create a new mental image of herself by looking within and transferring all of her hopes, dreams and mental anguish from her internal world to an online form where they can take on a life of their own. Maybe I can find a way to do the same thing. I feel awkward and a little out of place when I wear the Measuring Tape Blazer but I’ll get used to it, I hope. Hopefully Measuring Tape Marco can become a part of who I am and when I take the blazer off I can stand up and talk about my films with more confidence and strength than I have in the past. This is a little bit of a crazy experiment in performance art/marketing but in a world where everyone is a filmmaker, you have to do something different. You have to become a visual metaphor, the visual embodiment of your work and of your hopes and dreams.
Special thanks to Sarah Skinner who put in a lot of long hours of hard work to make this measuring tape blazer. It fits perfectly. And a big thank you to Brad Clarke for making the time to take this photograph for me. http://clarkeimages.com/
Ripples and Mini-Viral Events
Public Speaking
The last time I spoke to more than 20 people in a room was in Grade 3. I gave a speech in the auditorium about the solar system and I described each planet. I have no memory of that day but I do have the bronze medal I won for my speech. I decided to wait over twenty years to speak to a gym full of people again......
For a while, five or six years ago, I had to do some marketing workshops and there were 10 to 20 people in each group. The first couple workshops I gave involved me mumbling and looking at the ground as my hands shook a little. By the fifth or six workshop my hands almost stopped shaking. I had a flashback to those days of looking at the floor and mumbling at the beginning of the presentation I gave last week.
Here’s the introduction to the speech:
“I used to think who ever told the most stories, took the most pictures before they died would win. It was a race to see how many images could be captured. How many stories could you tell in one lifetime? Every image we take is part of us and tells the world something about who we are. But What is an image? What are we trying to do with our films and with our photographs. We are showing the world where we were looking, what we were doing. We are documenting our way of looking at the world. If you look back at all the images you’ve ever created and put them together, you would be able to piece together the stories of your life. If a picture is an experience. If a picture is moment in time captured. If it is a reflection of who we were when we took the photograph. Then the images we create define us. They are your stories. They are your friends. They are your family.”
It ‘s strange how you can overcome shyness yet still carry it with you. Due to the world of social marketing we live in my recent speech was shot on video and will be online in a few weeks. Hopefully I wasn’t staring at the floor and mumbling too much. I do openly admit my hands were shaking just a little bit.....
Follow the Pixel Brick Road
Last December I came across a book on marketing called “Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel. I flipped through the chapters and was amazed to discover I was doing about 60% of what the book recommends. It wasn’t until last month that I finally picked up a copy. I plan to use the book as a marketing bible that I will follow for the rest of the year and we’ll see what happens. Like ‘Julie and Julia’, I’ll be using Mitch Joel’s cookbook on marketing to decipher the secrets of “integrated digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship”. Chapter by chapter, I plan to follow Mitch Joel’s Pixel Brick Road and see where it leads.
The book is based on the premise that “we no longer live in a world with six degrees of separation. In fact we’re down to only six pixels of separation...” How many pixels separate me from everyone else is still to be determined. I used to believe that all you had to do was make a film and send it to film festivals. Then, you wait.... I’ve done a full 360 degree turn on that type of thinking in the last few years. I have now come to accept that every film I make is a product that I have to market in any way possible. That in fact I am not marketing a film, I am marketing myself. I am my own product and I must promote myself so that I can continue to produce more work. (At this time I would like to apologize to my family and friends for some of the silliness that is to follow in the coming months....but you have to do what you have to do.)
Last years experiments in blatant self-promotion lead to my film finding a distributor and to my films actually being invited to festivals. In this radical shift towards marketing I’ve had to leave behind some of my shyness, though I always carry a part of it with me. In many ways my new film ‘Measuring Tape Girl’ is about overcoming an inability to communicate due to shyness and finding self-acceptance. Even though I’m not on Oprah I’d like to let everyone know that I accept myself as I am and that I am working to overcome the last fragments of shyness I have left in me. Exactly where the thoughts and words of this marketing wizard will take me is difficult to predict. I’m not sure where this pixel brick road will lead me. The only thing I do know is that it is leading me in a new direction: Forward.
AnnieG@the Movies - Measuring Tape Girl Behind the Scenes
Measuring Tape Girl Behind The Scenes
Thursday, February 18, 2010
By AnnieG