December 2010
20 posts
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Filming the Unfilmable: Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood...
After many months of reading (and coming across a litany of words I’ve never heard of), I’ve finally finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It is, without a doubt in my mind, of of the greatest literary achievements of the past century. It easily belongs alongside the greatest works of Faulkner, Hemingway and Morrison, and is one of the most lucid accounts of the...
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15 Things I Liked in 2010.
Aside from making Lilith, I did find time to partake in some fun activities. Here are some of the things I really enjoyed this year, minus Kanye West’s album, because most of you already know how I feel about it.
15) The Walking Dead on AMC. I’ve been a longtime reader of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novels, and I was a bit worried that a lot of the human element of his...
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Key art, Caitlin Hackett and Cam Floyd.
Been a fun and relaxing holiday weekend and I got some great gifts from my lovely wife, including a cooking torch for making creme brulee. I’m a simple man at heart, and she knows this all too well. I also won my fantasy football league (despite being destroyed in my other), and now I can enjoy the playoffs without obsessing about stats.
It was also a time to really start thinking about...
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whenbearsrideunicycles asked: Hey Sridhar,
I've been looking through the archives of your blog for the last hour or so and I've learned some great stuff, especially since my group and I are in pre-production for a short film at the moment. What was your experience like when you worked on your first short film?
I've been looking through the archives of your blog for the last hour or so and I've learned some great stuff, especially since my group and I are in pre-production for a short film at the moment. What was your experience like when you worked on your first short film?
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plainruth asked: What kind of equipment would you recommend for someone interested in making short films?
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Hot Topic: Photoshopping reality.
A friend of mine posted this video and I had to share it. It’s a crime that we’ve all been aware of but Jean Kilbourne brings up an especially poignant observation, that “turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person. We see it with racism, we see it with homophobia, we see it with terrorism…the person is...
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Music Videos.
Had a wonderful conversation with a friend this weekend about MTV, and how amazing it is that despite the fact that the network doesn’t play any music videos anymore, music videos are still being made.
While music videos seem to have found a home on the internet, it’s a shame really that they no longer have a cable presence because in the past fifteen years, some of the most amazing...
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There Will Be Blood - The Video Game.
In honor of my pick for movie of the decade. I really wish this existed.
kamalkiddo asked: Hey, I've only been following your tumblr for 24 hours, and I decided to follow you for a few reasons: you're obviously into film, you mentioned Noe's Irreversible as one of the top films of the decade, you give a lot of insight and information as the "business" of film, it looks like you're a fellow Chicagoan, etc. Here's my ?uestion... and please forgive me if...
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Health of the Artist, Pt. 2 - Mental Health and...
Continuing the post I made about the health of the filmmaker (which, thanks to an insightful comment made by a reader, I’ve changed to “health of the artist”), I wanted to talk about the mental health of the artist.
First of all, all artists are crazy. We may not look like it or say it but we are. Anyone who volunteers to make art a career is nuts, because it’s just about...
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Feature length.
The length of a feature, especially in the world of horror films, is always a grand debate. A lot of the discussion is rooted in the economics and social function of horror films, especially on how both major and indie studios view the genre.
When penning a screenplay, there is an unspoken industry rule that it must be somewhere between 90 to 120 pages. It’s because of this rule that...
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Decade In Review: 10 Best Movies, the Top Five.
Continuing from yesterday’s 10 thru 6, here’s the remaining top five, which was harder than ever for me to figure out:
5) Sexy Beast (Dir. Jonathan Glazer, UK, 2000)
Gandhi was a very important film for me. I remember it being the first time I saw my parents cry in a theater, and watching the film was a meaningful reminder of the sacrifices that the people of my motherland made...
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Decade In Review: 10 Best Movies, #10-6.
I don’t know why I do this to myself. To limit oneself to select ten movies over the span of ten years is a near impossible task. Every time I think I’ve got it, another great movie pops into my head. So to even try to make this worthwhile, I’ve come up with a specific criteria for what makes a movie truly important.
There are five criteria that a film must meet for my...
firsting-deactivated20110728 asked: what was your schedule like on this film? how many days of filming?
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Music for the Weekend:Black and White Town by the...
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angbeen asked: Hi,
I've been following you for a while now, reading your back posts to update myself. I am seriously so excited about your project and am really looking forward to seeing the finished project. I'm South Asian, really interested in filmmaking and I was wondering what your family's response was? Was it a struggle or have they been really supportive? Anyway, good luck with the...
I've been following you for a while now, reading your back posts to update myself. I am seriously so excited about your project and am really looking forward to seeing the finished project. I'm South Asian, really interested in filmmaking and I was wondering what your family's response was? Was it a struggle or have they been really supportive? Anyway, good luck with the...
18 tags
Huzzah!
It’s been a rough 48 hours, and it’s always hard to swallow one’s pride. But as I posted before, it’s okay. Things happen for a reason. I’ve been to Sundance before and this was not the year. One festival does a film not make, but it would have been nice to screen at Sundance and see some old friends. Next time.
But what better way to dispel the blues by sharing...