Back in LA

It's a helluva thing to move to LA and then go back to New York on a job for two months. It was a great experience, and an unbelievable treat to see my friends. It was also completely disorienting, but maybe I just drank too much. It's great to be back in LA and back in the swing of things. It's a sunny, hot August day and I'm working on a behind-the-scenes piece for Andrew Volpe's band LUDO. I'm also looking for a new place to live out here.

"How I Got Lost" screened in St. Louis

I would just like to thank everyone who came to the Tivoli to check out "How I Got Lost" and the other terrific shorts that were shown. It always so much fun for me to come home and especially to screen movies, so I was upset that I could not make it this time. I was in New York working for Matt Tauber and HDNet films on a movie called "All Fall Down," and the screening happened in the middle of our crazy production schedule.

In any case I'm looking forward to spending more time in St. Louis this fall.

Outlier: Here I am ... wait, where am I?

So I find myself here, in the desert somewhere outside Joshua tree, telling an actor "I'm sorry, but you have to do it again," shooting a movie called "Outlier." His shirt is already drenched in red corn syrup. So then he puts enough fake blood in his mouth to make him gag and I say "cmon goddamnit let's roll now, now!" And then it's action and he's stumbling along, falls to his knees, and then artistically spits up a mouthful of blood onto an already existing puddle from the previous takes. This time though, he really goes for it, even falls over the side from his knees, coughing and dying. It's all fairly realistic. Then it's cut, everything is done, I have fake blood on my hands and I don't remember how, and it's time to get back to the real world.

So now I'm in my apartment in Burbank with Kevin and Ivette, who sublet it to me for almost a year. We're all moving out now and the place is bare. All day the furniture sat in the front yard, like someone got confused where the walls were, where outside ended and inside began. And I'm in the empty living room and Kevin's friend is trying hard to outdrink him. The next day they're gone and I'm moving a couch and a bed into storage myself with a giant Uhaul. I go home to empty rooms and piles of paper and find a bottle of wine and get ready to find my goodbye, as Holden taught me. After awhile I find it.

So then I'm at Lily's apartment, packing for the plane. It's even later now and I'm wrapping her secret birthday presents and setting up my computer for her. She is sleeping peacefully, totally out, and I already miss her, know it's going to take a lot to get by without her, even if I'm working on a feature film in NY fulltime for the next two months.

Here I am in New York, strange to be back, great to be back. I feel like I'm in Europe for some reason, travelling light, working hard. Decided to join a gym, started using a bigger wallet... these things show that I am becoming more mature. Every day wake up with a mission, working with great people, people who make movies for a living. Ended up on a terrace with Ted Hope, the guy who made New York film happen from 1990 on. Here I am: learning everything there is to learn being in a production office three weeks away from principal photography.

Found out that I got into the IFP directing lab for emerging directors, a workshop set up for people about to make their first feature. Right place, right time. Lab starts on Tuesday.

Trenton, Richard Vague, AFI: news so subtle it's blatant

Cat, Dom, Sam, my mom and dad and I screened "How I Got Lost" at the Trenton Film Festival on Saturday, April 30. There was a Q&A and Cat and I did our best to be serious and not talk ourselves seriously at the same time. Graham Hamilton and Cat Yezbak were nominated for a festival award for their work, and I received a "directing award for screenwriting in a narrative short." Which is really pretty fun.

Also, the "How I Got Lost" full screenplay was a finalist for the Richard Vague award for a first feature film by an NYU alumni!

And in other Great News: Blatantly Subtle director of photography Justina Mintz got into AFI!

I've been in New York for the past week, basically wandering around... about four years ago when I made my NYU student film "Bulletin Board," I was in love with the idea of meeting the perfect girl. This last week was the perfect week, a new idea that I am in love with.

Great New Wonderful - the first great 9/11 movie?

Check out the article at the link above.

So tired I can only tell that it's been a few days because I need to shave (again). Tired like falling asleep with shoes on. Looking forward to doing laundry busy. That's what it's been like the last few weeks as Post-Production wraps up on "The Great New Wonderful," which will be screening at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22.

Many wonderful things! I'm coming to New York. I'll be there for almost three weeks as I escape the bright sleepless sun and the difficult left turn lanes for the place that used to be my home. Good old New York in the Springtime. I'm determined to make the most of it.

The first thing I'm doing is going to see "The Great New Wonderful," which I helped get through post (I was the Post-Production Coordinator, or Supervisor, one of those, anyway I worked hard on it...) I can't wait to see how it plays on the big screen. Premiere is April 22, with three other screenings. Let me know if you wanna come so I can get you a ticket.

Next on the agenda, a screening of "How I Got Lost" at the Trenton Film Festival on Saturday, April 30th at 5:30pm. Less prestigious, yes, maybe a little obscure -- sure. Regardless, this is going to be a very good thing. There will be a bus for Blatantly Subtle to attend leaving from Manhattan. Festival number one. After a meeting last week with a filmmaker advisor at IFP I'm considering chopping it down a bit for the rest of it's festival life, see if it gets a second wind.

Finally, "How I Got Lost" (the feature screenplay) is a finalist for the Richard Vague Production Fund, a $100,000 grant for NYU alumni making a first feature. So I will be pitching it to the selection committee the same week.

All of this makes me very excited to get back to New York.

There are no end products.

The screening went well. I was surprised who came, to tell you the truth. The Temple Bar is really kind of a music venue/bar. Not exactly the sort of place you expect to see short films. But the place was full, and as I walked in (late) I saw four or five people to wave to. All of the people that I thought "wouldn't it be great if they came."

Visually the movies didn't look great through the video projector (it looked good enough but Justina wouldn't have been happy) but the sound blasted through the music venue speakers, and it was a wonderful thing hearing all the work that Dom and I did. All of the dog barks and subtleties. And I was really surprised. My movie showed second and after the first minute people got quiet and watched. And they laughed at Andrew and understood Jake. More or less it worked, and I felt pretty good about it. Afterwards I hung around with Lily and it was like a dream where all of the people you have met show up. That's what happened. So many of the people I have met out here in the last year went out of their way to come by to say hi and talk about the movie. Even the director of "Harold and Kumar" was there... and he liked the way it was directed and edited, said it was pretty good. Not bad.

There are no end products. Nothing that can happen at a screening or anywhere else can really live up to all of the work that goes into making a movie and all of the high hopes you experience. The work is where all of the good stuff happens, I think. That's what I was thinking the whole day before the screening, and I had a great time. I was really happy throughout the whole night. The movie screened with four other shorts at the IFP LA Cinema Lounge programmed by Julianna Brannum, who has herself gone out of the way to help me out. Things like this are very important when you're making movies and you aren't sure what to do next...

What'd you guys think of the Oscars? I didn't have too many thoughts, really. I enjoyed the show kind of mindlessly. Thought Chris Rock had some valid points and that Sean Penn looked like Bob Hope or someone standing up for Jude Law... Watched the whole show all the way through. Earlier in the week I had seen them setting it up down on Hollywood Blvd. Screwed up traffic all week... I thought that Eternal Sunshine and Sideways won for good reason -- and I always like the screenplay category. I saw Million Dollar Baby two weeks ago and it blew my fucking socks off. There are some good theatres out here for seeing movies, I must say.

And speaking of awards ceremonies, I have tell you all that my dad, who has taken up coaching hockey since my brother and I left our highschool hockey careers behind, coached his way to his first State Championship last night!!! It was my highschool's first since my brother and I were on the team. The Burroughs Bombers played at the Blues arena (they weren't using it anyway) and beat St. Charles West 4 to 1. Not bad for my dad's first year coaching highschool hockey!

It made me think, do I know anyone else who would learn how to skate and teach hockey, out of the blue? It's a good question. Would I? I gotta try to be more like that. I watched my dad talk to his little guys (he started out coaching 10-12 year olds) before a game and I saw how he did it more than once. He was pretty good at it: he would come into the lockerroom and tell them to shut up and quit calling each other gay and saying bad words to be cool and all that. And once he had their attention he gave what he called the "they hurt your dog" speech. Basically what he did was, he convinced them the other team was responsible for hurting their dog! The little kids would get psyched up and mad and run out onto the ice in their skates, ready to play. He saved it for the big game of the year... Anyway, how cool is that.

We all need a good "they hurt your dog" pep talk once in awhile, I've decided. (Maybe even one every day?)

"How I Got Lost" IFP Screening in LA

how i got lost

Monday, February 28 7:30pm
The Temple Bar in Santa Monica, CA
Wilshire & 11th St.
IFP Cinema Lounge Screening

classic Blatantly Subtle on Triggerstreet.com

Two movies from the past -- "Bulletin Board" & "Personal Soundtrack" -- managed to make become a part of the most recent Triggerstreet online festival. If you haven't checked out this site, I'd really recommend it. If nothing else it is a great way to get kneejerk feedback.

Also, check out the responses to the films below.

Clearing the Way

It's the new year. I went to the Rose Bowl yesterday and it was a pretty amazing way to start off 2005. Jared and I walked around drinking orange juice and vodka out of plastic one-litre bottles and everyone had this look on their face. Or at least it seemed like they did to me. It was the new year.

I have been burning special edition dvds for cast and crew. If you are one of the lucky few, hold onto to your copy. Someday it will be worth thousands on eBay...

I've been clearing the music for my movie, which is overwhelming and educational. So far, the Sufjan Stevens song featured at the end of the movie (from the Michigan CD) has been cleared! And all I can say is that the people at Sounds Familyre -- specifically Lenny Smith -- are terrific and I'm really grateful to have befriended them. (Lenny had 2 questions: do you need all the f words? & can you use more of the song? my answers were yes & yes). I also was lucky to get to get festival rights to use the Walkmen song "138th St" and Matt Sharp's song "Shadows."

All of this has been pretty cool. I really have to thank everyone who has dealt with me over the phone, via email, and through the bane of my existence, the fax maching... Thank you for your patience and willingness to listen to me long enough and enough times so that I either convinced you to help me out or to get rid of me.

Happy Holidays from Blatantly Subtle!

Happy Holidays! It's 80 in Burbank today!

We have just produced special edition copies of the movies featured in "Love, Lost & Sold," the screening held recently in New York. There is also talk of having a screening Los Angeles this spring!

First things first -- the special edition DVD of "How I Got Lost" includes special features like a commentary with me and Dominic (the sound designer), behind the scenes footage and outtakes, a slide show, and the trailer to the movie... All of which is overwhelming I'm sure. In any case a select few have been sent out to cast and crew. Enjoy them with eggnog or hard alcohol.

Also, we are mass producing these things, so let us know if you'd like a copy -- or a bunch of copies. The more copies that are out there the
better, as far as we're concerned.

In terms of the future for "How I Got Lost": I have sent it out to several festivals, including Tribeca, Firstglance Philadelphia, Sedona and South by Southwest. And I will continue to send it out for festivals through the season. We will hear from many of these festivals in February and March. I
am optimistic about the chances of having a modest festival run, and should it get in to a few, cast and crew are certainly encouraged to attend!

Finally, some breaking news: I recently got a job out here in LA as the Post-Production Supervisor for "The Great New Wonderful," an independent feature that was shot in New York, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tony Shalhoub, Judy Greer and a few others -- so I'm going to be out here through most of Christmas and New Years, with a couple days in St. Louis. Then in January I'm going to Sundance, where I'll be directing traffic, watching movies and trying to talk to people about our movie.

If I don't get a chance to talk with you -- have a wonderful Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa season and don't get too hammered on New Year's Eve, or you'll have to do that whole "resolution" thing with a hangover, which is annoying enough on its own. On second thought, try to overdo it SO much that you will miss the ball dropping entirely. That's my technique.

Screening our movies - "how did it go?"

I will do my best to remember, but honestly my memory feels spotty, and I feel like I'm trying to remember a dream now that I've woken up. Here, to the best of my memory, is an accounting of how the screening went...

I got in town a few days early. The first few days back in New York I slept on couches, stayed out late and got up early, and fought off a cold; I spent my first night in New York looking in vain for a cellphone charger. I went to see Jace in "Heartbeat of Baghdad" at the Flea. It thought it was great. I ran into my friend Kaki on the street. New York is still everything I always thought it was. At one point, on accident, I ran into Sam and Bryan on one block. Bryan came to town from Toronto with his girlfriend Janice, and showed his movie "A Quarter-Life Love." This was a very good weekend even before it got started.

The days before the screening Sam and I cold-called agencies and production companies. It was a good thing to do, since everything else was ready to go. But still, it's a terrible way to spend a day... We sent out emails and faxes of our press release and our press kit. All of this led to exactly one person showing up -- who we already knew. But then, maybe we are out of touch thinking that the film industry types would be interested in our work. Or maybe someone else is out of touch...

Regardless, we stuck to our plan and sent out our emails (and our spam emails) and called everyone we knew for the fifth time.

And then... we didn't know what to do. Honestly, every other screening we have done we have been struggling up to the last minute to finish the films. This time we had our shit together. We had made the best movies we knew how. We put months into it, and we didn't lose focus for a moment. Before the screening even happened, I was proud of us. I was proud of Sam and Jill and Justina and Jace and Bryan, and Dom and Pete and everyone else who followed through and helped finish these movies.

My big job the day before was to get red carpet. This I found in Chinatown.

Before the screening we had friends and family helping us set up. Lexi and Kate were our hot ushers, handing out programs, making signs and in general being wonderful. Sam, Bryan and Dom did the sound and picture check. Jill and I set up a table with handouts and things. And we practiced our speech, which was a very difficult thing. Jill was on fire by the way. She looked great and couldn't have been happier. Before people started walking in we took some pictures on the red carpet.

I was so happy to see the people who came: like Ian Cohen, Ishai Setton, Mark Arywitz, Barbara Malmet, Riley Gallagher, and far too many more to mention. Lily's mom, aunt, uncle and cousin Beth came. My parents were there. Remnants of the NYU hockey team showed. People I didn't know at all, reached through NYU or some other mysterious means, came out of the woodwork. The actors and their friends piled in, and before we knew it we had a completely full 300 seat theatre, and it was time to give our speech.

After that it's a little bit of a blur.

And then after the movies we hung around a little and talked to people from the cast of The Wire, who came to check out what we were up to. Then we went to a bar around the corner and stayed there until it closed down on a Sunday night. Then, I think the few people left (Sam, Jace, Kate, other people, me I suppose) went to the Blind TIger, which amazingly was still open. And then we stayed there for awhile. I just didn't want the night to end at all.

The next morning I woke up early in my parents hotel in midtown, and stayed up all day, continuing my new philosophy in New York of waking up early to beat my hangover. It was a beautiful, cold, New York day. The kind that makes you realize where you stand, what matters to you.

Today's it's raining in Burbank. My life has not changed drastically, as I imagined it might on occasion. But things are looking good. I recently got a job out here working as a Post-Production Coordinator for "The Great New Wonderful." So I'm working on that through Christmas. And I'm sending "How I Got Lost" off to festivals...

And that is how I got lost and where it left me.

Review of "Love, Lost & Sold"

Check out the link above for a review by a fan who attended our screening.

Thank you everyone for attending!!!

Attention: Cast & Crew of "How I Got Lost"

I doubt you've forgotten how cold it was in February when we shot this thing.

Well, it's finally time to see it. In the last month or so, Dom and I have been working on the sound design and it's been way too much fun. Most of what we did involved making noises and doing foley work (re-creating sound effects, essentially) in the sound booth, and of course drinking beer. Kevin and Graham also came in to record some stuff, and it was great to get back to working on the movie with them. I guess I've more or less lived with this movie over the summer, and I know it will be hard for me to admit that it's all done now that it's over with.

Which is why this premiere is going to be great. Everyone's going to be there.

I'm sure by now you know the details of when and where, and I hope you've gotten postcards and enough emails to clog your mailbox already. And most of all I hope you're looking forward to seeing the end result of all of that hard work -- and of course there are also two other movies to look forward to that will be shown with "How I Got Lost." Basically, there's going to be a lot of good stuff to see. Let everyone you know... know, or something. (Also, check the back of next weeks Village Voice!)

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, or if you just feel like saying hello. It'd be great to hear from you. Otherwise, I will be in town next Wednesday, November 10, and I'm free for drinks or coffee anytime. I'm more than happy to show you the movie ahead of time if you wanna check it out. And I think it'd be great to have BRUNCH the Sunday of the screening! So I'm going to be looking into that. Did I mention that we will have DVDs for you at the screening? And of course I will be able to give you whatever footage you would like in raw or finished form for your reel. Just let me know. Now that the movie's done I don't know what to do with myself.

So over the next week while we're calling production companies and agents and sending emails, keep in mind the following picture: a theatre filled with 200 or so screaming fans, a red carpet, and myself wearing a dress that is also a swan. Ok, maybe not.

But it's going to be almost that good, so bring your friends.

The Premiere

Blatantly Subtle invites you to an exclusive gala premiere...
LOVE, LOST & SOLD: three shorts filmed in new york
Sunday, November 14TH, 7:30 pm
Cantor Film Center –36 East 8th Street NY,NY   FREE

A Quarter-life Love
Dir. Bryan Friedman
Starring Jill Frutkin & Jace Mclean

How I Got Lost
Dir. Joe Leonard
Starring Kevin Kane & Graham Hamilton

Sell Out
Dir. Sam Mestman
Starring Peter Karinen & Kate Dulcich

Show up in jeans, a ball gown, or cabana wear. Come early for a good
seat and stay late to have drinks with us!


a blatantly subtle screening
backing up our good ideas with debt

The Cardinals Lose the Pennant

It was still the best season I remember.