Fourteener Films

I’ve mentioned before on this blog, that the original screenplay upon which our current project is based was inspired by David’s emotional roller coaster ride immediately after the events of September 11, 2001. The absolute emotional devastation and intellectual bewilderment caused by the flying of those planes into those buildings in the name of God was tough on the entire world. It really got David to the point where he – a recovering Catholic – is now in regard to organized religion in general (see his recurring theme of ‘horseshit’).

People all over the world were quick to point out that the word ‘zealout’ and not ‘fundamentalist’ describe the terrorists who took those planes. Equating their perversion of the peaceful Islamic faith to the American Ku Klux Klan – who pervert the context and meaning of the Bible to fit their end – is an accurate comparison. So the fair statement to make there is that we can’t blame religion right?

Well …

No, that event should not have cast the Islamic faith into the same barrel as the those rotten apples. But has organized religion not been a cause of a lot of death in the name of a creator that I don’t think wanted us to go around killing His handiwork? Do you suppose we were meant to pass divine judgement – in other words act as God – and righteously take ‘Gods greatest gift’ from another in His holy name? Yet that is a recurring theme.

Look at what is going on in Israel and has been for centuries. Look at the entire history of the Crusades. Look at the shooting of the Pensacola abortion doctor by a ‘religious fanatic.’ Look at New York City circa 2001. Look at what has happened since.

Here’s a question – what if the Bible was really, actually, and truly written by humans? Humans, fallible and swayed by basic human needs and desires may have actually written that holy text. Astounding. No matter how inspired they were, they were human. But people go so crazy over the ‘word of God’ as if the book literally materialized out of God’s mouth.

Now, I’m not going to say what happened because like EVERYONE else, I don’t know. I take it on faith. But I certainly don’t think I should I have the right to kill anyone for disagreeing with me.

Living in the deep south right below the buckle of the Bible Belt, I often saw a bumper sticker that said ‘If it ain’t King James, then it ain’t Bible.’ To me, that epitomizes the hypocrisy. You’re going to tell me that a version so blatantly political that it was named after the MONARCH who HAD IT REVISED to his liking is the version that is CLOSEST TO THE WORD OF GOD?

Organized religion has always been big business. Long before the Jimmy Swaggarts and Jim and Tammy Bakers of the world ever showed just how corrupt of a business it could be. Churches have manipulated governments with tools like excommunication and defining monarchs as God’s instruments on earth. How is it that anyone, no matter how strong their faith can be so blind to that? How can they NOT wonder if maybe, the basic human principles like kindness, love, faith, forgiveness, trust, gratitude,honesty, generosity are all God intended us to take from His word and the rest is marketing?

I mean, why is it that God MUST be perfect? If he can get angry enough to reduce an entire city of rapists to salt or to cause a flood that kills all of the world except the folks in the big boat, doesn’t that tell you something about the basic humanity of God? We call that ‘the wrath of God.’ Wrath. One of the seven deadly sins. If God is capable of committing one of his own deadly sins, I’d say we’re calling Him fallible. And if He’s fallible doesn’t that take some pressure off of Him?

In ancient religions, gods were fallible. Zeus and all of the Greek gods were subject to wrath, jealousy, spite and making mistakes because of their very human flaws. Is it not possible that over the centuries, Christians have idealized God to the point of making Him this perfect being? Perhaps God is feeling a bit resentful? Perhaps God gave us things like intellect, free will, and, you know, thumbs so that we could make choices, make mistakes, live our lives and not expect Him to live and think for us?

As I step off of this soap box upon which I suddenly find myself standing (I’m a bit embarrassed), I’ll leave you with this. My whole point was to talk about the thoughts and questions that inspired the Arkangel series. There will be shots taken at the picture painted of God, Jesus, angels, the devil, our relationship with God as humans, and God’s relationship to the human condition. If that’s a problem, maybe the real question is the strength of the doubter’s faith. Or perhaps the strength of the foundation upon which they chose to build that faith.

Walter,

Where are the zealots! Dude, you promised me zealots. Zealots, am I spelling your pseudonym correctly? Can we pretty-please have a teensy-weensy conversation?

No?  ’K.

Goodnight.

-Himself

PS (that’s post-script, not post sanctity or post sacreligious…though that might be nice)

Horseshit on religion as it pertains to the “organized”

i’m operating on about 2 hours of sleep over 2 days….add in school, work, baby, in-laws in de house….and my baby and wife are pretty gosh darn sick….

any-who….going to bed….when I go to bed really tired, I tend to really dream…and I dream about that which I spend most of my time either thinking about or wanting to think about….

last time this happened, I pounded out three hundred pages, resulting in WEIGHSTATION…

off to bed….if they won’t show up on the printed page, well, then tonight I enter their world …and drag them all back with me to mine, kicking and screaming if needs be…

“‘Night Mary-Ellen”

Baby won’t sleep. Been sick for days. Barely got projects in for college coursework I’m working on. Yet, strangely, with mere minutes to spare, everyday I have free time…whether it be minutes…or even seconds…I’m thinking about this project….WEIGH STATION is becoming ARKANGEL…I’m one of those quirky sorts who has to have the entire story in my head, INCLUDING, EVEN, NUANCES…then I sit down and pound the thing out in a matter of days….also, Walter has some very creative ideas on how to add to the story line, along with new story lines…the kind of things that move a story from a screenplay into a tv series.

school will finish and the deadlines Walter and I have established will be met. not long now

Colorado indie film company Inferno Films is continuing to do an excellent job promoting the Colorado film culture. I was currently surfing the net to get to know some of our Facebook fans better and I stumbled across Inferno’s film The Highwayman starring Macleish Day.

The film is based on the Alfred Noyes poem.  It is set in 18th century England but filmed in Colorado. I encourage you to visit The Highwayman official website for a plot synopsis. But the reason I wanted to talk about this coming film was to share this excellent interview that Day gave to the Tongue & Axe podcast. Among other interesting topics, they talk about filming in Colorado.

Enjoy! Tongue & Axe: #5 Macleish Day

this stories close….way different from the “Weigh Station” screenplay, and that’s cool….concept will stay the same..Bullshit on the generalized version of Religion…mostly ’cause it’s gotten us to where were at….es no bueno….so forward we march….college classes and Chloe keep me grounded but am nearing the end of an extremely risque opener….question? the radicals went gunning for rushdie with a vengeance…do i play it safe for my baby’s sake, or do I go for the real true message so she’ll be proud of me…even though she may not know/remember ME…?….guts and experience say FALL INTO THE STORY and let everything else work itself out…good times…note to self….when we go into production, pack extra fun meters…

According to this AP article I read on The Denver Channel (Channel 7) News Website, three pieces of legistation designed to create jobs in Colorado’s ‘creative industries’ were proposed today. The article specifically mentions film and more specifically, film companies that book 75% of non-payroll budget in Colorado.

Unless I am mistaken, the article is saying that an independent film company based in Colorado (even one that does not fully comply with the 75%) may be in line for up to $300,000 in incentives. It does say “incentives” and not cash. So I’m thinking in terms of tax breaks, tax credits, perhaps some fee waivers rather than grants or loans, but who knows? The article doens’t go into further detail. I will try to find more details so check back.

Please retweet/repost this and lets keep an eye on this legislation. If it could help stimulate the arts in Colorado, I’m sure everyone interested in this site and blog would benefit. If I can find any links to the details of the legislation and whom we can contact to voice our support, I will post them.

I am new to this whole film making thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have my strengths. As an advertising professional. I’ve been involved in production for television commercials. I’ve storyboarded, written the copy, and even been on set for the lighting and shooting for a few hours. I did some work at a local access cable station too. I was able to spend several weekends sitting in the production booth and watching a television show get produced. Learning to run the audio board, watching the director, floor manager, camera all work was very educational.

But seriously, that was all completely different than the world I am entering. Just taking direction and letting all the people who actually do all of this for a living was easy. Now, I’m not just going to be riding a needle on a sound board but letting sound engineers really make sure it’s all working. I’m going to need to know what I’m doing.

Now, David is a producer with a technical theater background. He knows how to light a shot, set up a sound stage and all of that. Me? I am going to get to tinker with the camera for awhile. I am going to get into all of that techincal stuff and learn as much as I can. I have a lot to learn from my partner but I think it’s all stuff I can handle.

When it’s all said and done, my involvement in the creation of the story is what I am really excited about. This first project will sort of ease me in. David came up with the concept and really fleshed a lot of it out almost ten years ago. But since we are expanding a 90 to 100 minute movie into dozens of hours of self-contained episodes, there are a lot of plot and character decisions that may be made differently. Some devices used to convey a specific amount of information within the 90 minutes can be altered, expanded on, or eliminated completely. So while the goal of the story hasn’t changed, the creative direction has been given a completely new set of parameters within which to operate. Dozens of new possibilities to build plots, subplots, develop characters and detail their relationships. It also gives us countless new ways to achieve the goals we have to accomplish with this series.

Obviously, I am speaking to the other novices here. Telling a story with pictures is full of amazing possibility. For example, dialogue is MUCH less important than the twitch of a gaze, clenching of a jaw, shot of garbage blowing across an urban alley. So much can be explained with four silent seconds of film than can be established using several minutes of dialogue. While clever, believable dialogue is a good thing, I am learning that what makes dialogue good in a movie versus in a play versus in a novel are extraordinarily different.

To any novice, I highly recommend reading Syd Freeman’s book Four Screenplays. I also recommend the collection of classroom notes from legendary filmmaker and dean/professor of the revered film school California Institute of the Arts Sandy Mackendrick. The book is edited by Paul Cronin and titled On Filmmaking: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director. Both are amazing expositions on screenwriting and directing. If you can find a partner who’s been there before, I highly recommend that as well.

I am new to this whole film making thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have my strengths. But I think the greatest strength I have, the one that will get me farther than any other, is the knowledge and understanding that I don’t know anything yet.

When David first told me about The Weigh Station - the screenplay he wrote and partially produced several years ago, I was concerned.  I mean, I wasn’t worried about the viability of the story.  And given his experience, I wasn’t worried about anything logistical.  My concern was whether it would be too preachy.

Think of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers or Any Given Sunday.  Both movies I was able to enjoy but I had to ignore the whiffle ball bat labeled “THE MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!” that was constantly being smashed into my head.

If you look at the cover of the Natural Born Killers DVD, it says right on the box ‘the media made them superstars.’  In an improbable street interview, a hip kid says to the camera “We value human life.  But if we had to be serial killers, we’d be Mickey and Mallory.”

In Any Given Sunday we see Los Angeles Sharks quarterback Willie Beamon flexing and strutting through commercials.  We watch athletes pumping themselves full of drugs and throwing money around.  We watch a bunch of millionaire players cheer as the star running back cuts the new star quarterback’s car in half with a power saw.  In the end, we see stills of old, leather helmet football players diving selflessly into the fray.  We watch the current day star running back step out of bounds with four seconds on the clock – stopping the clock and giving his team one more play to win the game.  We cut to a quick shot of Al Pacino on the sideline yelling ‘unselfish!’ as if we didn’t understand what that step out of bounds meant.

THE MESSAGE!!!!!!!! I THINK YOU, AS AN AUDIENCE ARE TOO STUPID TO GET WHAT I AM SAYING SO I WILL MAKE IT SO LITERAL, A REMEDIAL HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH STUDENT COULD WRITE A DISSERTATION ON IT.

That was what I was worried about.  The feelings that inspired David to write The Weigh Station were directly from the affect of the events of September 11, 2001 took on him.   That was a powerfully affecting event for those of us who remember the planes hitting the Pentagon and the twin towers.  And while the events and their aftermath brought out the best in people across all racial, religious, economic, and political backgrounds, it also brought out some really bad, overdone music, television, poetry – as any major event will.

While, I never doubted David as an artist, I know how powerful emotion can color our perception and especially our self-perception.  So I was concerned to say the least.

When I began reading, I got more and more excited.  Here was a story revolving around very sensitive religious subjects in a decidedly irreverent way (the understatement here is like calling a hurricane “breezy and a tad moist”).  But I was enthralled with the plot line.  There were some parts where the shift in narrative view were a bit jarring but that could be because the script he gave me was cut and slashed and edited and re-edited.  So I think I read some parts that were cut out.

It was a very moving and exciting story line to work with.  The real challenge has been to figure out how we are going to stretch this out over a series of episodes.  But I think after several weeks of tossing story lines and structure ideas around, it’s beginning to gel.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying.  This isn’t a story about the events of Sept. 11.  The tragedy of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attack aren’t referenced in the series.  Those events were the catalyst.

But the questions are very real, very human.  David calls himself a recovering Catholic.  His view of the subject matter is colored by his experience in the church.  My upbringing was by a Protestant and a Buddhist.  So our backgrounds lend themselves to the sort of broader shift of accountability we are hoping to achieve with our show.

This is not a series about religion. We aren’t going to tell you what you should believe, or even what we believe.  We think that while you watch our characters’ journeys, you will come to the questions yourself.  Questions we ask ourselves and questions that those with the most staunch faith should still ask.

I’m rambling now.  But I am very excited about what we’re doing.  Oh and I get to say Horseshit without any Hail Marys. Just sayin.’

Arkangel was conceived as a screenplay (The Weigh Station) in direct response to the events of Tues, Sept. 11, 2001. Paired with it was a stage play (9/11: Brotherhood of Fire) about the surviving five fireghters from an entire platoon (Five Fire Houses).

“So, this is where religion got us?”, I thought to myself the moment I could put all events and news snippets into context.

“Really? Really? This is how we have all decided to use this gift of life given to us by our God “(whichever God you choose).

Horseshit.

Fast-forward nine years. Look around you. Is the world in turmoil? Of course it is, it always has been, despite a relative few respites. That’s not my point, and that’s not the overriding goal of this particular project. We feel, our job is to entertain and try to give every side a fair shake. After all, there are two sides to every story.

We’re the crusades a good idea? I don’t think so.

Slavery? No.

Killing each other in the name of our respective God’s? I think, and this is my belief, (one which would land me in several prisons around the world) that the respective gods would say “Horseshit on that!” No disrespect intended toward any religion or God, I just like that word. ‘Hoseshit’, however is a prime example of religions proffering excuses. Me, I’m a recovering Catholic. Since I’m not completely recovered, I figure six hail mary’s per ‘Horseshit’ gets me out of MY God’s dog-house, no pun intended.

By the way, I think I’m up to 24 Hail Mary’s? Should start a spreadsheet in the background…

Not going to put all my thoughts out there. Walter’d kill me. Just know this. This project, in particular, will weigh two concepts.

What does God, in all his/her manifestations think about folks spray painting his/her name on a car bomb or smart bomb and destroying innocent lives. In Arkangel, he thinks “HORSESHIT!” (….thirty…).

Also, what is the relationship between God, his archangels, and Jesus two thousand years after Jesus’ death?

Food for thought.

Walter’s an my Golden rule? Have fun.  If we can let folks fall in love/hate with the characters, maybe ask themselves questions like: Why would my particular God give me a human life to live, and then demand we spend half our lives on our knees praying, and the other half planning the demise of folks halfway around the globe, just because they love a different God as much as I love mine?

If those things happen, and, we break half a million fun meters along the way? I’m cool with that.