Just a Bit of Music Video Magic for Monday

Using multiple webcams this video is beautiful, whimsical and magical!
Enjoy~

Tetro

Last Friday night I was invited by my dear friend Carol Tingle to see Coppola's new film "Tetro" and see him speak after the screening. The film is a marvelous study of love, fame and its impact on family. Shot in gorgeous black and white and set in Buenos Aires it harkens to the masters of neo-realism and classic cinema while weaving in brief surrealist moments punctuated by sudden intense color. It seemed to me that the choice of color wasn't just that Coppola loves the purism of black and white. By filming the contemporary story in black and white, while flash backs and theatrical elements were shot in color, there was a subconscious statement that the characters' lives were deeply impacted by their pasts, and that the past had more presence and therefore was in color, while their current lives were caught as if dream-like in the web of their memories.

Coppola stated that he was exploring the impact of creative success in families. His thesis centered on the need for love to surmount the need for fame. The back story centers on two brothers: one a famous maestro, the other the one who taught him but was left behind forgotten and treated like an embarrassment. Coppola portrays the impact of the relationship on the succeeding generations as ties become distorted. The film plays out as a reunion forces unbidden memories and hidden truths to come to light.

It is an art film, thank God in this world of manufactured screenplays and their offspring. It is beautiful to see a film where structure, imaging and storytelling transform into a greater gestalt. The performers are brilliant and the casting of Vincent Gallo with his angular face and luminescent eyes is a stroke of genius. Maribel Verdu is a marvel and is the heart of the story with a performance that is at once warm, strong and with an inner life that is breathtaking.

Bravo Coppola!

for more info about the film visit: www.tetro.com

Food, Inc.

If you want to know how to help save the planet, see this movie! I saw Food, Inc. last night at the Nuart Theater and it was astonishing and provocative. I left feeling both horrified and empowered. Believe me, a trip to the grocery store today was an alternate experience as I consciously waved past the copious counters and shelves of meat and processed food to find the few organic, non-hormone filled, healthy home-grown choices.

Now, I am not necessarily primed for this kind of consciousness. I grew up eating meat and love it. My expanding hips speak to my love of all that is sweet. However, the recent rash of media from books to movies has imbued me with a sense of outrage and responsibility for the damage we are doing to ourselves, to animals, to each other and to the planet. If you are interested in a glimpse of the truth, if you like to pull back the curtain and peak at the mechanisms that run our world then this movie is for you. But I warn you--it is not for the faint of heart and it will make you courageous.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

I can't wait for this new Terry Gilliam film to come out. An article about it appeared in the L.A Times yesterday as it premiered in Cannes Film Festival. There's of course a lot of buzz around it as Heath Ledger died as they were making it and friends Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell stepped in to fill the role. I'm just so thrilled that this amazing filmmaker was able to see his vision through and that we'll be treated to a new Gilliam feast soon. Currently it has European distribution. Let's hope it gets U.S. distribution soon!

Meanwhile, enjoy this trailer--

The Earrings From a Dead Woman

I was shocked today when I followed a link to an article about the tragic suicide of young British actress Lucy Gordon. As I read the blurb, I noticed in the picture that there were price tags on her earrings and blouse. When you rolled over, conveniently the brand and the price were displayed.

I felt absolutely sickened. Tragedy and commerce, I know, are unfortunately often strange and necessary bedfellows. However, this was sick and disgusting. I am torn as to whether to offer the link as an example or to not contribute anymore to the shameless commerce. I think I will opt for the second choice and not join the "obsessed".

I Love the Whole World-Boom de ya

One of my favorite promos is Discovery Channel's current offering "I Love the Whole World".
With imagery ranging from astronauts to archaeologists, Stephen Hawkings to base jumpers it is a beautiful exuberant love song that elicits giant smiles. Joyous without being corny, it's a wondrous reminder of our incredible shared lives.

Enjoy--

We Haven't Forgotten How to Live

On a recent trip to Croatia to film some of the last shots for a documentary, my partner Michael found himself running at a breakneck pace alongside a producer with a huge list of shots and just a few days to get them. You know, the typical independent film story. To help them with the shoots they found a wonderful assistant named Vid who took them around Zagreb and Slavonski Brod over the 5 days. At one point, the producer went off to one of her interviews and Vid turned to Michael noticing his harried demeanor and said "We are a country that has been through many wars, but we have not forgotten how to live. May I buy you a cup of coffee?" With that one kindness Michael was able to relax, knew he had a wise friend in Vid and was able to survive the grueling 18 hour days of non-stop shooting and a crew of 2 to pull it off.

The story made me think about our own lives in our tech mecca dashing at high speeds, careening around each other to finish just under the wire one more ephemeral deadline that is imposed at the possible cost of someone's health. Just this week there was another news story of a Japanese worker dying from over work. A Toyota employee, he was working on the latest hybrid model and collapsed. In Japan they have a term for death from overwork: Karoshi. While Japan recognizes the societal and health issue the Supreme Court in the United States ruled against a case that was trying to state that this problem exists in our culture as well. The Puritan work ethic is a badge of pride for Americans and saying "no" to a client or boss is seen as not acceptable. Our heroes are superheroes who do the impossible and we bring that into our offices and studios as we deliver just in time. In fact, much of our economy operates on the "just in time" model of inventory and delivery.

In my own life I have had moments after 5 straight all-nighters for high profile and high stakes projects where I believed that I was going to die for the client. I remember sitting in a hotel room looking into my bleached and swollen face, new veins popping out my forehead from the spiked rise in blood pressure and my body sallow and limp. My heart was racing and I feared that I could possibly go to sleep and not wake up. Was it all worth it? Had I crossed over into living to work rather than working to live? Is the adrenalin rush and the feeling of camaraderie with fellow teammates that "we did it again!" part of the addiction? What is living in our contemporary American dream? Is it winning the title?

No matter how often I may beg clients to begin earlier, to not factor costs in by forcing timelines and therefore being able to limit budgets, or to limit their expectations commensurate to their timetable, they never change. We are a society of procrastination and it hits hardest on the people who are the creators or the fabricators of the product who in the end have to deliver. They are the ones that have to tell their families once again: not tonight, or this weekend, or this holiday...I've got a deadline. Life is subsumed by work and slowly we begin to forget how to live.

However, there are people in the world who are not so threatened by the clock that they cannot stop to smile and greet someone in the street, or to sit and enjoy their coffee with a friend, or be able to patiently wait while a child dances around a decision. They don't need to fit their meals, their sleep or their relationships around their career. They understand balance and while they have clear career goals, they also factor in their families.

I love what I do for a "living" but all work and no play, as they say, is making me (and my output) rather dull. It is imperative to remember how to live again and we need to remind our clients as well.