Back in May I was interviewed about Discouraging Words for the cable access show Filmmaker’s Studio. Not my best or most coherent interview, but in my defense I hadn’t slept more than about twenty hours in the week preceding the interview.
Anyway, the show is embedded below:
[YouTube]
…And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings…
…put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Picture lock.
Post-production on Discouraging Words is getting crazy (in a good way?) because I need to have a screener done by the seventh of May. Here’s where I withdraw into my hole and become an antisocial hermit until the movie is finished, so if you send me an e-mail or Facebook message or the like, don’t expect to necessarily get a reply. Ever. Fair warning—that’s just the way I roll.
Anyway, here are two things that you might find interesting. First, a frame from some news graphics I’m currently rendering out:
And here is an actual scene, presented in its entirety: (more…)
No sense in keeping a lid on this anymore… (more…)
Context:
Content:
Analysis:
Dear God, he’s finally done it. This is a film steeped so heavily in self-referential in-jokes that even though it’s apparently (and disturbingly) about me, I can’t understand it. It is possible that this is no longer a film, but some different and heretofore undiscovered form of communication. I feel as though I am watching the end of 2001 : A Space Odyssey for the first time, on a screen the size of the universe itself.
This is some of the most astonishing editing I’ve ever seen to come out of Vvinni’s mind, and I think we can safely say that as this project continues, the dispatches become smarter, better and more complex. Vvinni here demonstrates an uncanny ability to parse and deconstruct my previous message, all while building it into a post-post-postmodern photograph on the back of a milk carton. The epilogue that labels me “missing” is particularly chilling, and leaves me feeling as though I actually have gone missing under mysterious circumstances.
I fear I may have been bested here, I’m not sure if I’m capable of crafting an adequate response, but I will try. Speaking strategically, my previous dispatches have been an attempt to ape Vvinni’s style and beat him at his own game. It’s obvious that he is capable on that front beyond my wildest imagination, and so perhaps it is time to return to my old friends, minimalism and narrative. We shall see what comes next.
Additional Context:
Last summer, after wrapping principal photography on Discouraging Words, Vvinni and I (with the help of Evan) shot a bunch of footage on VHS tape about a supremely antisocial übermensch named Plastix Ultimate. Back in August I shared an ad for Skin Removal Cream that Vvinni had cut from the footage. Now, here’s something else:
This ultra-condensed version of the narrative we shot was created for the “Foot in the Door 4″ show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and leaves out a few key plot points, but I think it captures the overall flavor of the piece.
Second, here’s this:
What I really love about this camera (a Panasonic Color TV Camera WV-3320) is the analog smearing—ghost trails and lingering burn-in left by bright highlights traveling across the frame. I realize that I probably only have a limited number of usage hours on this thing before one of the tubes burns out (these are fragile components that have been working for over 30 years, after all), so I have to figure out something really good to do with it. I think maybe I’d like to use it to make a music video.
So if you’re an extraordinarily talented musician and you want me to make a music video for you using this camera, drop me a line.
Somewhere in suburban Colorado last week, a person received a package reeking of onion. Everything was going according to plan.
To recap: First this happened, then this happened, then this and this happened.
Thanks to Vvinni, you can see exactly what happened when that onion-scented box was opened, embedded below:
And here, friends, for the first time, I am proud to present what was on that tape:
This is not over, friends. Sinister insinuations and careless threats have been made. Foul deeds are afoot. The Tape will travel again.