I am currently in Austin for South By Southwest Film and Interactive conference and festival. I’m here with the From Here to Awesome team, meeting (and recruiting) filmmakers, finding screening partners and shooting video for the educational component.
I’ve also been invited to speak on a panel about short films. The panel is on Tuesday, March 11 at 11am, in room 15 of the Austin Convention Center. Friends Jigar Mehta and Brent Hoff are on the panel with me.
Is it the Golden Age of Short Film? People keep saying it is, but I doubt many filmmakers have felt the gold yet. Some short films are bringing in more money than most award winning documentary’s are being sold for. Find out what is the best way to capitalize on these new potential revenue streams as Filmmakers and industry experts discuss if this will really finally elevate/free shorts to become an art form and not just a stepping stone to features.
If you’re in Austin, come find me.
Tags: brent hoff, film festival, from here to awesome, jigar mehta, new york times, panel, short film, speaking engagement, sxsw, wholphin
For you die-hards who are still curious to learn more about Four Eyed Monsters, here is yet another audio interview. Director Daniel Schechter interviews Susan on Renart Films. This one is worth noting because it is a semi-rare opportunity to hear Susan’s side of the story alone and because Schechter moderates a compelling discussion covering a wide range of topics in a (relatively) short period of time (51 min).
Susan tells about an email that Arin received from someone who discovered the film as a free, unofficial (and basically illegal) download on Bittorrent. He loved the film so much that he bought a t-shirt and DVD from the website. This is a great follow-up example to the grilling a London filmmaker gave me about whether it’s possible to make money when you’re giving your film away for free.
Renart Films Podcast Episode 28 - Susan Buice
Tags: audio, four eyed monsters, interview, susan buice
On occasion, I find that life slows down a bit. On those sad, slow days when there’s no movie premiere party, the Simpsons rerun showing is a clip show and pre-production on my next film has halted ’cause I’m waiting to hear back from a co-writer, I can come dangerously close to experiencing boredom, or worse, full-blown ennui. In these rare cases, the last resort to avoid heat death of the universe that is my brain is that most desparate, contemptible activity: reading. Newspapers, magazines, even sometimes weblogs. And once, I read a book. I’ll be honest with you, dear loyal readers, it’s come to that.
In my usual, attention-grasping style, I’m going to share something silly that I read. I found it in that silliest of publications, The New York Times. Michael Jernofsky and Sarah Kershaw write:
Shawn O’Hara, national chairman of the Reform Party, which was founded by Ross Perot, sought to play down differences with Mr. Nader. He insisted that Mr. Nader’s views were not entirely out of synch with the party as currently constructed, at least on some issues, like their mutual opposition to world trade agreements and the United States military role in Iraq.
“We’ve moved to the center,” Mr. O’Hara said, while conceding that he once favored the execution of doctors and nurses who performed abortions but now embraced abortion rights as provided by federal law, as Mr. Nader does.
For those of you who are in the pitiable position of being bored enough to care about politics, the full article is available at the Times website. There. I feel much, much better now.
I’ve got a few goodies for those of you who are missing out on all the way cool stuff I do and see every day. Most of you, I know. But hey, that’s why I’m here!
The New York Times did a whole section on the history of Times Square, which just turned 100 in April. I know this one is way old, but it’s good. And like the Times, I like to come to the story way behind the curve but give it the full treatment. There’s a cool slideshow narrated by James Traub. A Day in the Life is surprisingly fascinating: “And what of the sights? ‘We did see the Eiffel Tower,’ says Julie Pasket. She meant the Statue of Liberty, but the confusion is understandable. All those French structures look alike.” Even better is a comment by Elaine Swann, 85, in Their Times Square who says, “The idiot tourists come in droves. I want to kill them when I’m trying to get across the street.” I know, Elaine. I know.
Next up, Monday was the premiere event for Meme, a new “music, art and mixed media” organization. Off to a bit of a rocky start with a 25 minute atonal clarinet/laptop duet, the evening turned out nicely, thanks in part to the handsome and funny host. The second piece, another atonal clarinet/laptop duet, was quite a bit better than the first, mostly because it was quite a bit shorter. This time, they played in front of a large, digital projection of a screensaver, which eventually dissolved to reveal soft-core porn. So that was pretty cool, I guess. Everything after that managed to be relatively innovative and engaging. A guy jamming on his electric cello, Kamala singing a Mozart opera thing into a webcam and a fun music video/sex documentary. there was plenty more after that, but I had to leave around 12:45 am to go somewhere even more fabulous. Not to go to sleep or anything like that.
Wednesday was more mainstream, but no less fun. Metropolitain Opera in the Park on the Great Lawn. One of my favorite summer events, almost up there with the (practically identical) Philharmonic in the Park. An unusually large crowd turned out for Madama Butterfly. I didn’t really follow the story, since it was in French or something. But the wine was good…or at least, there was a lot of it.
Keep an eye out for the Philharmonic as well as Bryant Park Movie Night every Monday this summer. See you out there.
On occasion, I have been known to send the blog.chirls.com staff out onto the Internet to find stuff for me to read when I’m too bored or disgusted to deal with the people around me. Today, as I was having my New Year’s Day pedicure, I found this wonderful little piece on page five of this morning’s print-out. It’s a review of the film Trainspotting, written by a lady from Massachussetts, USA.
I think we could all learn a lot from this review about life, journalism and film directing. I, for one, will pay close attention to these words when working on my next film, whether in writing, casting or drinking at the wrap party.
if you think junkies are glamorus
I just couldn’t believe the hype this movie got when it came out. I had trouble trying to follow the conversations (they were spoken in a very thick Sort of Scotch accent). The people were sooooooo ugly. What happened to all the beautiful movie stars????????????? The men were ugly and the women were even uglier if that’s possible. These people where obviously extreme low end people. Unless you like junkies, baby death and ugly people pooping in their beds don’t bother with this. Rent “The Full Monty” instead! It was a much better movie.
[From amazon, link by chirls]
A swell showing tonight at The New Yorker’s “Fiction Live” at Joe’s Pub. Hope Davis read “Friendly Skies” by T. Coraghessan Boyle. T. really raised the stakes with this one, and Ms. Davis showed how much a real actor can add to a piece. (Plenty.) Brian F. O’Byrne read “The Dinner,” a piece by Roddy Doyle that was way funnier than it should have been, given that it’s been done before. Neither the author’s awareness of that fact nor the quality of the performance could have hurt much. Prolly good directing also. Oh yeah, some guy from some TV show was there too.
And the fiction editor was totally checking me out.
Database: Columbia University Libraries
Search Request: Keyword = christmas and carol and conducted
Search Results: Displaying 1 of 1 entries
How to combat anti-Semitism in America; the six prize winning essays in the…
Title: How to combat anti-Semitism in America; the six prize winning essays in the contest conducted by Opinion-a journal of life and letters.
Physical Description: 91p. 18cm.
Publisher/ Date: New York, Jewish Opinion Publishing Corporation, 1937.
LC Subjects: Jews–United States.
Antisemitism.
Material Type: Book
Location: BUTLER STACKS
Call Number: 893.19 H83
Status: No information available
I don’t care what the Colombians say. “The Simpsons” is not funnier in Spanish.
Okay, one more…
Steve Martin has agreed to star in the remake of The Pink Panther. Pleaseohpleaseohplease let this not suck!
The Ass found this nice little item in the Times for us. I don’t know if there’s anything interesting in the article, but the headline is a sign that the paper is on the way up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/international/middleeast/03REAC.html
A list of words recognized and not recognized by “T9™” text input on my mobile phone:
| Recognized |
|
Not Recognized |
| foodstuffs |
|
emirates |
| encryption |
|
sneakily |
| antibiotic |
|
penicillin |
| vagina |
|
penis |
| ejaculate |
|
semen |
| bronx |
|
staten |
| brooklyn |
|
hoboken |
| lesbian |
|
zygote |
| spam |
|
zeitgeist |
| carbohydrate |
|
atkins |
| verizon |
|
uvula |
| samsung |
|
femur |
| netscape |
|
linux |
| microsoft |
|
enron |
| antitrust |
|
helmut |
| iraq |
|
qaeda |
| hitler |
|
saddam |
| bush |
|
kucinich |
| gephardt |
|
sharpton |
| kerry |
|
moseley |
| dean |
|
braun |
| clark |
|
lieberman |
| modernism |
|
postmodernism |
| impressionism |
|
cubism |
| picasso |
|
matisse |
| christmas |
|
hannukah |
| jesus |
|
buddah |
| buddhist |
|
hellmut |
| hindu |
|
bogota |
| maki |
|
sushi |
| nippon |
|
kyoto |
| icq |
|
msn |
| oscar |
|
emmy |
