Between 2 and 330AM, KB, Gabs, Fauvell, Brigums, and I sat around the couches and brainstormed some truly terrible titles, some intentional some not. Here are some of them:
CHASING BRUCE
MISSING BRUCE
CLEARING
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SALT
SALTY AIR
INTO SALT AIR
EVERYWHERE BUT HERE
EVERYTHING IS POISONED
TAKE
GHOSTBUSTERS 3
Just before bed we thought of one that I think may work. Any last minute thoughts???
TWELVE HOURS LEFT!!!
Yes, no, maybe?
Come one, come all to the NYC screenings September 3rd and 4th! We are doing one in Queens at the amazing ATTIC STUDIOS and also one in Manhattan at the historic BLEECKER STREET THEATER. The screenings are FREE and there will receptions following both. Please come and help us celebrate the culmination of this amazing adventure!
We still have 30 hours of editing to go, but we stop all work at 11:59:59PM TOMORROW!
Love to you all!
-ML
Sorry 14-year-old Mormon fans – Brewvies got FULL BAR status in November so to see the Four Week Feature you’ll need to buy a fake ID or just wait until Sundance!*
*We have not been accepted to Sundance. But maybe we’ll have a private screening at the condo DURING Sundance!!**
**Did I just invite a bunch of 14-year-olds to Keith’s condo? Hmm. Probably should end this post immediately.
SEE ALL YOU OLD FOLKS SUNDAY!
-ML
So much happens every day, that one sort of blends into another. Anecdotes and accidents get lost in the shuffle. We got two flat tires yesterday. The day before we drove the wrong way on a highway for 45 minutes. Days earlier we almost got chased out of our wonderful motel location by co-owner “Uncle Gary” who arrived at the door of the motel on a tractor and had a classic encounter with Keith Boynton. Derek Van Gorder is losing his mind. These incidents and countless others are melding and metastasizing into a sort of 4WF lore and will certainly be recounted in the coming days and weeks. But for now, since my words are failing me, some pictures …
Breakfast of Champions
Clint did not think Keith would drink a water glass full of syrup. He was wrong
In Wyoming, even the Dominoes guy drives a 'Stang
A couple of Z's
Kings of the kill, me and Fauvell, Chad on the ground
DVGenius, at the height of his powers
Shadows: Fauvell, me, Lee
Getting late in the Saltair Flats
Making movies. What else is there?
-ML
INT. MAIN CONDO – NIGHT
11:30pm. Just made Mike and Keith their second cup of tea. Peppermint and Sleepytime tea respectively. Both with honey.
Producing an original piece of work on a time crunch requires inspiration, complete focus, and many cups of coffee and tea with a serving of madness. I know well from my speed filmmaking experiences with Mike and Keith. But writing an original screenplay for a feature film in a time constraint—to breathe months and years of character and conflict and journey to this infant of a storyline that we birthed less than 50 hours ago— is beyond crazy lake. I am not sure if anyone, even I, can understand the task that Mike and Keith have in front of them in the next few days.
But this is the thing: I know they can do it. This is probably the toughest and the least fun hill on the 28-day marathon (as of yet), and unfortunately no one else can run this part of the journey for them. (We would, if we could.) But if Mike and Keith keep doing what they are good at and let energy and inspiration flow straight from their crazy brilliant brains out onto the page, we will have a script and one talented team so ready to carry it out.
Meantime, all I can do is put the water on the stove and be prepared to produce the beautiful world they create.
In addition to sending us your best creative vibes, leave a comment with your best writing inspirations and words of encouragement for Mike and Keith and I will pass them on!
(Keith and Mike, if you are reading this, please resume writing and holler if you need more tea and/or Oreos.)
-Sumi
P.S.– HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIGITTE!!!!
I'm the water lady. They are the men in short shorts.
Just LOOK at them. They need help.
This will be short.
We have adjourned for the evening, having brainstormed for the better part of four and a half hours. We discussed and dissected 10 images – all of which were interesting in their own ways – many of which were striking in their similarity.
The brainstorming was a wild, rapid fire adventure into the creative and insane minds of our teammates. I hope we remember some of it. I’m told there is video, but I am sort of afraid to see it. We’ll put it all in the DVD extras.
Tonight we came up with of about 6 film premises. Later today we will reconvene and expand a few of these during the course of two massive brainstorming sessions, that will in large part will determine the future of the film. It feels like we are making a movie-creature and the next 24 hours is the time for our idea-sperm & thought-eggs to combine and lay down the DNA for the monster that will emerge in the coming weeks.
Did you follow that? Yeah, me neither. I’ll edit this tomorrow. Promise.
-ML
10 days, 3 timezones, 1 crazy whirlwind.
As Keith mentioned many days ago, I was in Los Angeles to shoot a short film, which was called The Rooster. We were at a horse ranch in Thousand Oaks, CA; place of serene beauty, which was an interesting contrast to the insanity of filmmaking. The script written by the Emmy-nominated Danny Strong, it co-starred Strong himself, Danny Masterson of That ’70s Show fame, Carla Gallo of every television show you’ve ever heard of, and ME, of, um, my infrequently visited website. It was pretty wild making a film with actors whose work I’ve seen before, a writer whose previous work I adore, and a fantastic director who I’ve known for years but who have never worked with professionally. I’m insanely excited to see what becomes of it!
Me in trendy clothing??? MUST be a movie!
This film is not nearly as serious as this still would indicate.
In a moment of calm, Carla and I Facebook, but not each other
A zonkey, or z-donk.
On earth, a little heaven.
Night
We wrapped The Rooster at 4AM, and at 730AM I was on a Jetblue flight bound for JFK. I had three nights in Brooklyn to unpack, do laundry, forget to pay rent, and repack. On Wednesday at 3PM I was on a Jetblue flight bound for SLC.
Yesterday Keith and I snuck into a brand new luxury hotel, The St. Regis, which has one of only two funiculars in America. Well, we sorta just walked right in. Turns out there’s not a lot of vagrants in Park City, so you can kind of just go wherever and people don’t ask any questions. It’s like being Canada, but with only rich people.
I can't even afford the bottled water here.
Fauvell will definitely be skinny dipping here before the end of August.
Tower of fire, unlit, hotel roundabout
The funicular is about to hit that poor insect!!!
Now I am at the condo in Park City, drinking as much Peets coffee as my nerves can stand, blogging, and preparing for 11 hours from now, when a brand new day will begin with a creative explosion the likes of which I’ve never seen.
Then then,
-ML
More from the original John G.
DRAMATIC ACTION IS PARABOLIC.
CHARACTER WANTS TO DO X
IT BECOMES LESS AND LESS POSSIBLE.
THINGS HAPPEN SO THAT S/HE HAS TO DO Y.
Beats are units that make up parabola. The parabola is the skeleton. Beats are the muscle. One parabola leads to the next.
People do not want to change. They hang on as long as they can until it is painfully clear that they MUST change.
I will go into the kitchen to get cookies.
I enter the kitchen.
But there are no cookies here.
The wall caves in behind me. I cannot return to my bedroom to watch Family Guy on Hulu.
I must escape this kitchen and continue my search for cookies.
A little kid tells Jerry to fuck himself. “Who had I become? Just another shark in a suit?”
Jerry has a breakthrough – he hates his place in the world. He DECIDES to write a memo. To help save himself.
“And then it happened.” He sits down and writes and writes and writes. “Fewer clients. Less money.” He mass produces it. “EVERYBODY got a copy.”
“Boom.” He realizes this is a horrible mistake. He frantically calls the hotel reception…
…but the manuscripts have already been sent out.
Although he is cheered wildly the next morning, director Cameron Crowe forshadows what will happen soon – sure enough, he is FIRED.
This begins the next parabola where Jerry C.1: Decides to keep all his clients, C.2: and calls them, desperately fighting against the Bob Sugar’s rumors and leverage. C.3: He cannot keep pace with either and then gets stuck in a conversation with motormouth Rod Tidwell who throws Jerry’s “more personal attention” line back at him. As the “on hold” lights on the phone become fewer and fewer Jerry must prove his loyalty to Rod by screaming “Show me the money.” C.4: At the end of this conversation, there is no one left for Jerry to talk to. C.5: Jerry must move forward with just Rod, Dorothy Boyd and the fish.
Ironically enough, now he has less clients and less money, which is what he was preaching in the first place. And by the end of the film, that mission statement that caused him so much pain does end up saving him.
Man, making movies is easy!
-ML
Modern life is pretty absurd sometimes. I don’t know how we get anything done with all this reflecting on how we get things done.
At any rate, WELCOME TO THE TEAM LEE!
Characteristic ridiculousness.
-ML
