Let’s just Obama it

She said: Bravo. You make such vantastic vilm! Is brilliant!

Monster: {Heeh} Thank you.

She said: You make one-hour version!

Monster: {Eyes pop, a teeny hopefully unnoticeable jaw drop} Uhhhh…you mean cut it by almost 30 minutes???

She said: You muz maximize the vilm!

Monster: I didn’t maximize it by making it?

She said: You arteests. Always kidding. Nobody iz going to zee your vilm except a handful of people in tiny festivals. All you want is to make your babies and not share it with the world. {She looks at my producer instead}

She said to producer: You tell her to make the cut. She make it one hour or vat a peeti! One time artist say no to me, he regret it. You do not make vilm for yourself, you know.

Producer to Monster: You can make that cut, yes?

{Are you people telling me that this is not going to stop happening until all my hair is gone? I really have to do this? But but I just want to save my…}

Monster: Yes I can!

 


I am a baby shark…

I keep seeing this really nice nugget from Margie’s wallpaper: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” This aggravates me sometimes because it reminds me of things I should be doing that I’m not doing at that moment.

How it would be nice to start obsessing over my next project, but it seems unfair to the one I just finished…But I didn’t know that after you’re done with a film, you’re never really done with it for a good while. There are screenings to attend, questions to answer (why did you make such a film???), speeches, and parties (which are fun sometimes I admit) and all the things that are apparently part of the game.

This is not a complaint but more of a realization that these things really take a whole heck of time! (So maybe I’m complaining an itty bitty bit) It’s really hard to get all worked up on the next thing. I’m not a recluse enough or strange enough to be removed from the normal activities of the unglamorous part of filmmaking- firm handshake, halo! yes of course…hearty laugh followed by intense look so as to project sincerity and good listening skills. I can do it, I will do it, but never losing focus of what to do next.

Because that is the main thing.

If I don’t keep swimming I will drown.


Writing about writers / Films about filmmakers

Dalhin mo lolo mo, kaya ko syang gawing artista.

Dalhin mo lolo mo, kaya ko syang gawing artista.

Nick Hornby has had it with novels about writers. It’s so pa-bida I guess. But the thing is Mr. Hornby, hee hee…I actually like movies about movies. Which reveals a suspicion of too much self-importance…but what can I do? I love Day For Night. I love Living in Oblivion. And now that I just saw Bernal’s first film, Pagdating Sa Dulo, I love it too!

But yes Mr. Hornby, I have to agree, novels about writers have reached their quota.


After LOTR

I used to think that people make ‘em short because they can’t do it long.

I think it only applies to filmmaking. I think, every filmmaker worth his salt should do a feature. I don’t think there are Eudora Weltys, John Cheevers or Jing Hidalgos and Tara Serings in filmmaking. I actually am not aware of any famous filmmaker who has not done a full length feature. I am not saying, it is a lesser film form…because Arkeofilms has done quite a few. And there have been stellar shorts that have boggled the mind. But it seems that it is not like a vocation. I don’t hear anybody saying, “I am a short filmmaker.”

But on paper. Ahhhh. The magic of short stories. Reading now “The Best Amercian Short Stories 2007″, and wow. I actually bought the book because I was convincing the Dude it’s a nice gift for our writer-friend, Abi. Haha. It never even left my bedside after I unpacked. (Sorry, Abs.)

Stephen King, the editor for the 2007 series shares how blown away he was with the stuff. He wrote, “I’m getting paid to read this??”

You must get your hands on my favorite stories. It’s all mind fuck. Amazing.

Toga Party by John Barth

L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Hmmm…I wonder where I can buy decent short stories written in Filipino?


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