MPAA accused of Piracy

Hysterical.

A man makes a movie about the MPAA. About the system, and specifically about the NC-17 rating.

The movies gets rated NC-17 by the board.

Now, it turns out, the MPAA made an illegal copy of the movie. And the director is calling them out for piracy.

Generally speaking, I very much like the idea of the industry policing itself by a board that applies "recommended" guidelines for parents. I think that's important. Just as I think it's important for the video game industry. And for television.

Specifically speaking, I think the MPAA's policies are bad for film. The arguments against them are varied and well-documented, and my opinion pretty much jibes with most people's arguments, so I won't list them here. But I think it's important to have a system in place that alerts parents to the content of movies.

I pretty much think that the existing system is very, very close to working. I LIKE the different ratings G, PG, PG-13, R & NC-17. As a parent of three, I'm very comfortable with those warnings. But that's all they should be. Warnings. For parents.

I believe there should be movies with unbelievably explicit gore and rampant nudity, swearing out the ass... hell, throw some double anal in there. I don't care. Just rate it NC-17 and be done with it. Don't treat the bigger studios differently than the little guys; don't hold grudges against filmmakers; don't make up your board with hand-chosen members with agendas; don't let MORALITY play into the decisions you make. A board like this needs to be objective and open with their decisions. Don't hide behind your decisions.

Anyway. Can't wait to see THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED. Should be good stuff.

Writing

My daughter is sitting on my lap. Eating apples and cinnamon. I can't make it like my wife can. As I was approaching the office door, clearly to write, my daughter, as always, pipes up: "Can I play on the computer?" (knowing damn well I don't want her to). She then sits on my lap, my Amy, as I write, and busies herself with something. Eventually, I relent, and connect to Barbie or Nick or some other site that has caught her interest. I leave, she plays. I return. And if she's already off the computer and see's me walking in the direction of the office?

Yup.

So, I'll take a little break here. Save a draft; just return later. I want to talk about writing. I want to talk about FIGHT CLUB and "Fight Club" and I want to talk about Chuck Palahniuk.

(LATER)

Ah. Much better. Snuck around her.

Chuck Palahniuk.

I , like most, was introduced to Palahniuk through Jim Uhls' script and David Fincher's translation of said script in the movie FIGHT CLUB. Super film, with the right combination of subversiveness, storytelling saavy and commercial appeal to even get made in the first place. Uhls did a brilliant job in adapting Palahniuk 's work, even improving it in some areas -- most notabley the "end" project of Project Mayhem. Uhls was committed to the themes and tone of the book, as well to the general plot, and his adaptation is one of the most successful book-to-film movies in recent history.

I love Palahniuk's writing. His sentence structure, his... timing. Most importantly, especially in his non-fiction, I love his honesty, his fearlessness. I just finished "Stranger Than Fiction", a collection of essays, editorials and insights published last year. Palahniuk is afraid of nothing. His words sear. What could be offensive is poetic. What could be incendiary, is, but is also calmly dour. He writes of things beautiful and things ugly on the same terms, the same plane. Defecation and ejaculation are one in the same; spit is the same thing that's swapped in kissing and sprayed in disgust.. and they both emanate from a wound in the face.

I don't know if I have a style. A consistent voice. The vast, vast majority of my writing in the last 10 years have been in screenplay form... a form whose strength is the short, declarative sentence; in writing exactly WHAT you see, and exactly HOW you see it. It's an inherently compromised form of creative expression. It's not a bad thing, mind you, the screenplay form. Just not the same as prose. Not as elegant. But it's one of the only ways I know to tell a story.

Heading to Chiller

This coming weekend, I'll be heading down to Secaucus, NJ for the annual Chiller Theater show. This year there will be six of us, up two from the last couple of years. It started out with just my brother and I 18 years ago, with Pal Jeff joining the troupe a couple of years after that. I've been every year since, sometimes twice a year, to either a Fangoria Con or a Chiller Theater show. And outside of maybe Christmas, it what I look forward to most in any given year.

Horror Cons are a tough thing to explain to people, and for years I avoided it. My usual description used to be a "film convention where I can meet other filmmakers and discuss the craft." In reality, and this is something I embrace now, it's a geek-fest. An opportunity to buy bootleg DVDs, meet/see famous people, and be surrounded by hundreds of like-minded people who love horror movies and don't hide it. At all. Yes, they dress up like zombies. Yes, they dress up like vampires. Most wear black t-shirts with images from THE EVIL DEAD, THE BEYOND, DR.BUTCHER MD, or THE DEADLY SPAWN. Then there's the women -- the Scream Queens, and the Fake Scream Queens hired by guys to help sell their stuff. They know many horror movie fans are hopeless geeks who will drop down ten bucks for a Zacherly magazine if a hottie with her ass hanging out is selling it. Why not? Who's it hurt?

Who's it hurt? That, I think, is a universal question that should be asked of everything. Morality should be dictated by the answer. The more honest, pragmatic and objective the answer, the more clear the morality.

Back to Chiller. Absolutely can't wait. If you're there, I'll be one of the square looking guys in blue jeans and a polo shirt or sweater. I did buy a DEADLY SPAWN t-shirt last year, but I'm too embarrased to wear it.

Taboo

Takeshi Miike, scandalous (to Western audiences anyway), prolific, and altogether gonzo Japanese filmmaker, has just had his Showtime Channel MASTERS OF HORROR episode, "Imprint" relegated to DVD instead of the higher profile, Friday night broadcast originally scheduled for the end of this month.

According to Dave Kehr at the NY Times (link at bottom), the episode, dealing with issues too extreme for the network, has been handed over to DVD distributor Anchor Bay, and will be released at some point in the future to an audience willing to spend their dough knowing what they're in for.

Makes sense, I guess... and I really don't have a problem with Showtime for their decision. I assume some will attack them for their "cowardly" move, but they're a corporation, an entity that exists to serve a wide audience, and because of their fears about offending said audience, they said, "no thanks". Perfectly within their right.

I'm more interested in the process that Showtime went through to reach their decision. It appears as though the questionable elements deal with abortion -- a very touchy subject... philosophically, religiously, politically loaded, abortion is one of those things. Nobody likes to discuss it, unless you're an activist, and nobody, but nobody, but nobody likes to SEE it (which I've gleaned Miike has charged his audience to do). I know I certainly would rather not.

It's taboo.

Taboos fascinate me. I'm fascinated by things that people are steadfast in their determination not to see, discuss, hear about, learn about, or otherwise be presented with and then have to deal with. Rape is another one. Infanticide still another. Cannibalism, I guess. Now, please don't misunderstand, I'M not interested in these things, either. I am not interested in forcible sex. I am not interested in parents killing their children. I am not interested in people eating other people. I think we can all agree this is all nasty, ugly stuff.

I AM, however, interested in things that nobody likes to deal with.

It's a reason I like horror movies so much.

I think there are very valid, potentially interesting things that can be addressed concerning taboo subjects. I believe everything should be open to discussion, to debate.

If Miike is making a point, or asking a question, or revealing an insight about abortion, and if SHOWING one graphically adds to that point/question/insight, then more power to him, and it's really a shame we're too small-minded as a society to deal with it. Transgression in art is good.

If he's just exploiting a gory procedure and wallowing in grue to sicken. Then count me out. I got better things to do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/arts/television/19horr.html

Heretic Films presents...

...MAGDALENA'S BRAIN

I'm going to officially announce it right here. Right now. We have a distributor. The final contract arrived this morning and, barring any unforseen crapola, we are now in bed with Heretic Films. You may not have heard about them, I sure as hell hadn't, but once I'd been made aware of them, some research yielded the fact that they have pretty good saturation. I've found several copies of several of their titles at two of my local Best Buys and two of my local Hollywood Videos. Plus they're all over the place on Amazon and Netflix.

I feel pretty good about them.

The downside is that it's not a particularly good deal, moolah-wise. In fact, we get no advance and don't see a penny until they recoup their marketing, packaging and replication costs. There's a distinct possibility that we will NEVER see any money, but then again, we may.

Warren and I agreed months ago that the money we invested was spent long ago, and the important thing was getting it "out there". With Heretic, we're sure we can do just that. If we DO see money, outstanding. If we don't, at least I can hang around in Hollywood Video and Best Buy and speak into a cell phone loud enough for others to hear, "That movie I wrote and produced... they've got three of them here. Man, it's cool to be a filmmaker." And then I can sideways glance at all of the adoring shoppers next to me and bask in their envy.

It looks like it will be out by June if all goes well.

Man, I love teaching

Just got back from my first classes at WSC and remembered how much I enjoy teaching. It's a very informal class, my little MCOM 332, but one I think/hope the students get something out of. I can be very passionate when speaking about screenwriting and movies, and I subscribe to the theory that passion can rub off on others. It's viral. One can't help but jump onboard another's passionate take on... well, anything.

It's nice to have something weekly to look forward to. I'm looking forward to Thursday.

Blockbuster Hates Me

I just got word that the deal we had brewing with Blockbuster concerning distribution of MAGDALENA'S BRAIN just fell through. It would have been a Blockbuster Exclusive title, available at all of their stores. Woulda been sweet.

Our other deal is still sound, though, and we are just awaiting the revised contract. The good news is that the current distributor has a pretty nice distribution deal with Best Buy, Hollywood Video, Virgin, Tower, Amazon and Netflix, whereas the Blockbuster deal would have just been Blockuster (and rental only, to boot).

So maybe it's a good thing, right?

Back to School

First day of school today. Back to teaching.

I'm an adjunct at a local college and teach a Scriptwriting course . It's a great gig that I stumbled upon two years ago (this term is my fifth), that is pretty satisfying all the way around. The official course description is something I kind of tossed out, and nobody seems to mind. The actual content of the course is heavily, if not exclusively, screenwriting (for film), and I really only touch upon the other disciplines requiring the art and craft of the script. I teach two sections, and luckily my full time job is flexible enough so I can spilt early on T-Th.

Ideally, teaching is going to be the main girder upon which my new career infrastructure will be built. I hope to parlay the two courses I teach into something a little bigger at WSC, as well as using my experience there to get into other schools. Then I complement the teaching with some freelance gigs in the (admittedly minuscule) local film scene and the (much larger) corporate/industrial video scene. And I'll have the flexibility to further pursue independent filmmaking endeavors, which is what I really want to do in the first place!

Then, all I have to worry about is insurance.

And the fact that I don't have a master's degree.

And the fact that freelancing offers no guarantees.

And the fact that I have to worry about two car payments, a mortgage, and supporting my family of five.

Now... now, the reality starts to set in. And the dream starts to fade. And the deep, dark depression sets in. And I curl up in a state of paralysis and sob quietly in the dark :)

I have to write more because I have to get better because I have to write a great screenplay because I have to make a great movie because it will sell for lots of money because I need the money because that will allow me the freedom to make movies because making movies is what I want to do.

Because. It doesn't even look like a word after writing it so much.

Back from Disney

Back from Disney.

I had a wonderful time. It was myself, my wife and our three children in a single, small, quite cramped hotel room (Disney would have you call it a "resort" room). We visited all four parks with Epcot probably being my favorite. Ate too much. Spent too much. But it's for the kids, and on that front... a wonderful success.

But now I'm back, right? Back to writing. Back to business. Back to getting myself to a place where I can get anoth feature film under my belt sometime this year. Right now I have three options.

-I produce and direct ATTACK OF THE SPACE CHICKENS. A script I wrote a while back that will not let me go.

-I collaborate with Warren on another film, much like we did with MAGDALENA'S BRAIN.

-Some other third thing.

Not sure what the answer is. But coupled with that decision is another multiple choice question.

-I remain at my full time job -- OK with $$, but pretty empty and miserable.

-I quit, and put together a patchwork career with teaching, consulting with other filmmakers, and freelance writing/producing in the local commercial/corporate world.

Money's the kicker here... for both sets of options/decisions. But either way, any way, I suspect I could continue to feed my family and pay my bills, so it just comes down to what I want to badly enough.

Not to do it badly; you know what I mean.

Logo

Ok. I made myself a little logo. I kind of like it. I posted it here until I can figure out how to upload it to the main banner area.

Read Joe Hill. Now.

Before I leave for vacation I wanted to post about a wonderful collection of short stories I've just finished reading: "20th Century Ghosts" by New Hampshire writer, Joe Hill http://www.joehillfiction.com/. It's a revelatory collection of fantasy/horror/sci-fi.. actually, it's just a revelatory collection. Period. A wonderful writer, Joe tap dances around the macabre, the absurd, the melancholy, he taps into emotion and character that is so often sorely lacking in today's "horror" fiction, though I hate to categorize him as a "horror" writer. He ain't. I can't say enough about it. A wonderful, wonderful writer.

That's 4 wonderfuls.

Housecleaning

Bit of house cleaning going on. I've deleted all but my original post on this blog, primarily because they were the ramblings of a unfocused mind. No more of that. I leave for Disney World tomorrow with the wife and kids (Lori 35, Max 7, Amy 5, Zoe 10 months).

Yeah, I know... I'm preparing myself for it.

When I return, it's going to be one of those "first days of the rest of my life" things. I could tell countless stories about why I need to change things in my life (and may at some point), but for now, let's just say I've got a lot of shit going on and I'm starting to sort it out.

Anyway.

My name's Marty, and I'm a writer. There. How's that? I'm never comfortable saying that, but there it is. Now living up to it... that's where the trouble starts. 2005 was kind of a bleak year for me, though you wouldn't think it by looking at what I actually accomplished. How's this?

-Daughter Zoe born.
-Got raise and another section of the Scripwriting course I teach at Westfield State College.
-Got gig teaching Independent Film at Holyoke Community College.
-Found TWO distributors interested in acquiring the movie I wrote & produced, MAGDALENA'S BRAIN.
-Associate producing the feature film, CATHEDRAL PINES, that has the potential to be a pretty good film.
-Script doctored a nice little short, TERMINAL CONVERSTAION, to be shot this March.

And there's more, too, but looking at this list I myself find myself asking myself... and you're bitching about what?

Well, I have problems. Some pretty good ones, too. Though I'm not quite prepared to go into them now, though a big one does have to do with my current job, that of a writer/producer for an industrial video company. Very soul-sucking, very spirit-stealing.

And because of that issue (coupled with many others) I haven't been able to write much. At all, really. The script revision thing was somebody else's material and not too fulfilling. And the I've been pretty hands-off of the feature.

I have ideas, I always have ideas, but I haven't, you know... the ambition. That has to change. So this blog is a personal thing. I can't imagine anybody reading it, but it's going to serve a purpose. A record. A sequence of events that I can look back on and use aginst myself to start and complete projects that I know I have in me.

So.

A week in Disney World. And then a return.