Some people just know how to make cinema.
‘Back to Solitude’, a short film by Joschka Laukeninks.
Wow. I’ve thought a lot about cinematography and lighting over the last couple of days, and how to raise the quality bar on our projects here at Dunya. This film not only delivers on the promise of beautiful imagery in a DSLR/digital-filmmaking world, but takes everything to the next level, from music to casting to structure and beyond.
Five days of shooting, six months of post-production, and some quintessential überdeutsch narrator voice that almost rivals Werner Herzog.
Watch this film. Love it. Then check out Joschka’s Vimeo page for another short and a bunch of video goodness.
Pixar’s ‘Inception’: ‘Up!’ cut to the Inception trailer audio. So great.
It makes me really think about the storytelling differences between animation and live action— I bought into the world of Up so deeply that I never really realized how much trippy imagery is in it, where it would be 100% insane in a live action flick that no one would ever believe.
I got to meet more people I really look up to the other day, almost unexpectedly.
Not *totally* unexpectedly. I mean, I did go see them live and sat as close to the stage as humanly possible, but I didn’t really know if they’d come out afterwards or not. But again, like Donald Glover before, these comedians surprised me with their down-to-earth approachability, even more so because they’re all superstars. Sure, Glover is Just For Laughs’ Rising Star this year, but Tim Minchin plays ARENAS now, and Rove/Christmas aren’t all that different.
After the show, I was going to eat at the L’Astral’s attached bistro, but the Down Under Trio were dining there, too, so I moved along not wanting to disturb them. Can’t say it wasn’t exciting to be ABLE to have dinner in the same room as them, though.
Thanks to all three of them: Rove McManus, Jarred Christmas, and Tim Minchin, for their autographs (WITH messages, Rick Mercer…) in my writing book that I just happened to have with me.
Lessons learned, among others:
- Stay humble at all times. All three of these guys were genuinely appreciative of every single fan they met. Rove McManus had a daily talk show for a decade in Oz, Tim Minchin is one of the most in-demand comedians and musicians in England, and Jarred Christmas is quickly becoming a global name. All three of them were just fun, normal guys the minute they got off the stage, delaying their dinner, giving hugs, learning names, and signing anything requested.
- Localize your act. As great as Donald Glover was, some of the more American bits in his set didn’t hit quite as hard in Canada. Especially French Canada. Jokes about presidents and GameStop just need a little more set-up, I suppose. Rove and Jarred both took things an all the way and then some by having pretty extensive local bits, including dealing with BC Grizzlies and Montreal Bixis, respectively. It really gives a performer huge cred in the moment, and makes a show more personal when they’ve clearly taken the time to absorb your culture: it’s the thought that counts.
I hope I can be this good a standup one day. I have funny things to say, but I don’t know how best to say them.
e.g. if the main joke in this bit had happened to me, and *I* was injured on the elliptical, I have no idea how I would make it as funny as Streeter does here.
ONE DAY…
My second CH Live standup clip is up! Remember the first one from a year ago? I must have really liked the way that first one came out because I’m wearing almost the exact same thing.
And hey, if you like me doing standup, become a fan on Facebook. That’s where I post show info and clips and all that other stuff my ego demands I do.
You have to understand the difference between location and story. Ninjas are a location, not the story. […] in Thank You for Smoking, it’s not a movie about cigarette lobbying; cigarette lobbying is a location. A location to deal with the idea of personal choice and freedom of choice.
So in addition to our show now being on iTunes (subscribe here!), episode two is now up for your listening + viewing enjoyment. This week, as made apparent by the album art, we did a commentary for Pixar’s “Up”.
So if you have any small children who insist on watching this on a constant loop, you’re in luck. Enjoy.
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Pete Docter’s 1 min. pitch for the original Monsters, Inc.
I’m a sucker for a great story. Enough that I want to build my whole career on storytelling, in fact. So when someone inherently great at it, like speakers on The Moth, This American Life, or say, Oscar-winning screenwriter and Pixar feature director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up) throws one our way, I get pretty engrossed and excited about it.
On a new episode of Jeff Goldsmith’s Creative Screenwriting Magazine Podcast (a show great for so many reasons that I won’t get into here), Pete Docter and the eternally entertaining Bob Peterson sat down to talk about Up and their own histories for an altogether too-short 1 hour, 12 minute podcast.
About 22 minutes in, while talking about how much films change over the course of their development, Jeff pressed Pete for what the story of Monsters, Inc. originally was. While I love Monsters, Inc. in a big way, the film he described sounded pretty amazing, and one I’d still love to see in the future. I highly recommend listening to the minute-long audio file in this post, but, if you can’t access it for whatever reason, I’ve transcribed it here below. And make sure to check out and subscribe to the free Creative Screenwriting Magazine Podcast so you don’t miss an episode of insights, stories, and fantastic interviews with screenwriters from every genre. Also in this episode is Pete + Bob confirming that they’re currently developing their next film together.
“Well, my idea was that what it was about was about a 30 year old man who is like an accountant or something, he hates his job, and one day he gets a book with some drawings in it that he did when he was a kid from his mom, and he doesn’t think anything of it and he puts it on the shelf and that night, monsters show up. And nobody else can see them. He thinks he’s starting to go crazy, they follow him to his job, and on his dates, and all this— and it turns out these monsters are fears that he never dealt with as a kid. And each one of them represents a different kind of fear. As he conquers those fears, the guys who he slowly becomes kind of friends with— they disappear as he conquers those fears. It’s this bittersweet kinda ending where they go away, and so not much of that stayed
[…]
it sounds better as a pitch than it did at the time— anyway. “
I’m down.
Other recent Pixar-related stuff on my blog: Pixar University and Wall-E/Buy’n’Large easter eggs in the Toy Story 3 trailer!
SO EXCITED TO LISTEN TO THIS. Also, if you’re interested in film or writing, this podcast is a fantastic resource and source of entertainment.
How we look at it is we want to reverse the pressure. I want to make these films to never be driven by what a consumer products [department] thinks they should be, but rather what the story should be. If you make a good film it’s like going on a nice holiday. You will want a souvenir.
Up producer Jonas Rivera on the challenge of merchandising the film.
Ok so this is kinda old news by now, but I’m writing this on the 8th, to be published later as I’m pretty busy with exams and all.
That said, from SlashFilm.com:
At the licensing fair in Las Vegas, Disney/Pixar revealed to buyers behind closed doors that they have yet another sequel in the works. Despite what Brad Bird said on stage at WonderCon two years ago, Pixar is now in the sequel business. Cars 2, Toy Story 3, and now Monsters Inc 2. According to Jim Hill, buyers who attended these limited preview sessions were sworn to secrecy by Disney officials, but several have confirmed that Pete Docter will be following up Up with a sequel to Monsters, Inc.
YESS. Monster’s Inc. 2. While I can’t imagine what this would be about and think that the first film was pretty much self-contained, I do love the film so very much, and feel like the post-UP Pete Docter is an even more mature filmmaker than he was 12 years before the sequel is expected to hit (and, on the standard Pixar 5-year dev. cycle, ~17 years after he started work on the first film. For reference, Pixar was still in a fire-hazardous spread of small building over an area of nothern California, nowhere near the beautiful campus they have now)
