Music for the Weekend: Trust Your Neighbor by MRC Riddims.

I guess I underestimated how far behind I was, apologies for not getting that business plan post up. I was severely backlogged on my inbox and wanted to take some time to respond to all of you that have asked questions. As many of you know, I tend to reply in full and try to give your questions my undivided attention. I’m pretty much caught up.

I wanted to leave you this weekend with a new jam by MRC Riddims, which is a new project from The Oktopus, one half of Lilith composers dälek. MC dälek and Oktopus are on indefinite hiatus (will the Lilith score be the final dälek composition? Will we ever again get our ears melted by dälek’s blistering wall-of-sound? You never know. One can hope.)

Right now both guys are exploring new sounds. MC dälek is exploring some new territory and knuckling up by reinventing classic hip-hop under the moniker of iconAclass (currently on tour with Sole in Europe); I listened to some of his new tracks and they’re ill as all fucking hell. Think Rakim processed through the world of Cannibal Ox, but so so SO much more street. It’s gonna be wild, can’t wait to share it.

Okto’s taken a different turn, spending time equally in Berlin and Harlem, and diving headfirst into emerging soundsystems, dub and dance music. It’s quite a departure from the classic dälek sound and then again not that much of a departure at all. There’s still that swelling, bleeding bass and grinding rhythms, but imbued with some classic Rhythm & Sound dub and Teledubgnosis textures. It’s quite a startling combination, and this track proves it.

I admire both men immensely for deciding to continue to experiment and discover new sounds. dälek will always be a pioneer in hip-hop, but to continue to innovate, sometimes you’ve got to take it all apart and start anew. That takes a lot of guts and a ton of confidence, and my brothers will do it, they’re the best in the business. I’m always excited to hear what they’ll come up with next, and I can’t wait to collaborate with them both again on my next film.

Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to check out my new personal directing website, lots of cool stuff to be found!

Music for the Weekend: Raging Lung by The Knife.

Been a slow week of writing, I guess I really wasn’t in the right frame of mind to draft anything, between my escalating work schedule and oh yeah - me calling the creator of the universe a sham and flirting with agnosticism last week. Just another day in the Reddy household. Tomorrow I eat oatmeal.

I promise I’ll get back on track with the business plan entries, I know many of you have been asking about it.

In the meantime providing me some peace of mind and fueling my creative energies is the new album Shaking the Habitual by electronic pioneers The Knife. This record is turning out to be a modern masterpiece in my head, it’s forming all kinds of new imagery and designs that I’d never seen before. This track in particular is something quite special, and I keep coming back to it. I’m completely mesmerized and inspired.

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: Etimasia by Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem.

I’ve many influences on my art, but in terms of my career there’s really only been one filmmaker who’s life and philosophy that I truly want to embody. Ever since I saw Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, I wanted to pattern my filmmaking career after Jim Jarmusch. His canon is one of true expression, of making movies his way, independently, and without compromise. A Jim Jarmusch creative misfire is still leaps and bounds more ballsy, meaningful and expressionistic than any kind of Hollywood hollow victory.

Jarmusch makes his films when he has the financing ready - it may take a year or a decade between films for him, but he makes it happen. He leads a simple life, one that doesn’t require a great fortune to achieve happiness. He’s a true renaissance man, embodied by his beautiful guitar work in this music track from his collaboration with Jozef Van Wissem. Jarmusch is an artist first, always, and never backs down from what he feels is right.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for me, Jarmusch is a distinctly American filmmaker, and I don’t mean that as a slight to filmmakers in other regions. His work reflects to me what it truly means to be an American artist, an amalgam of cultures and perspectives seen through the filter of individualism, folk art, and the fuck-all attitude of rock n’roll. Jarmusch is at once European as he is Native American, black as he is white, hip-hop as he is country. He is all of the above, a great cultural mishmash with a distinct worldview.

It’s a very subtle thing, but highly important nonetheless. In the great experiment that is the United States of America, artists like Jim Jarmusch are key in developing our nation’s philosophy, a feat that requires genuine soul searching and honesty. Jarmusch has been honest with himself and his culture in every frame of film, note of music, and word of prose he’s given us, and that’s something I wish to honor in my own work as an American filmmaker. It’s not blind patriotism or jingoism, rather it’s an act of pure discovery.

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: World I Need You, Won’t Be Without You by How to Dress Well.

Well I guess I’m in a sappy mood. Just returned home from New York City and sitting in the terminal at Laguardia at 6am, I just really missed my wife and cats. There wasn’t anything in particular that triggered it, but at that moment my heart was crushed with loneliness. I just wanted to be home.

I guess as time goes by I dread leaving loved ones. I got back from the airport and my wife wasn’t home, but my kitties greeted me at the door as they always do, and I dropped my bags and smothered them with hugs and scratches under the chin. My wife came home a few hours later and her voice just sounded so cute to me. Just like the day we first met, only sweeter, and full of love.

I have a good life. In the midst of the daily grind I tend to forget that sometimes. Maybe that’s why the heart reminds us every once in awhile.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Music for the Weekend: Machines by The Soft Moon.

Finally, it’s done. My short film - titled ‘7x6x2’ - was delivered a few days ago and was screened at a special event on the Sony lot in Culver City, CA. The screening went very well, the film was universally lauded, and we’re moving on to the release strategy. I initially thought it would be available to release today, but Sony’s got a new release plan and we’ll get it all out soon for everyone to see, and at that point I’ll be able to discuss it in far more detail. In the meantime, here’s a sneak-peek still of the film:

So after five weeks nonstop on the road, I’m officially out of gas. I’m taking the weekend off to recuperate, kicking back with a copy of Alexis De Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’ and listening to the new record by friend-of-Lilith band extraordinaire, The Soft Moon. (Their track ‘When It’s Over’ is featured on the ‘Lilith’ trailer.)

In the meantime if you haven’t already, make sure to pick up the ‘Lilith’ DVD or download it for a fun weekend watch. We’ve been incredibly thrilled with the show of support so far, but we still need your diehard support to make this little indie film that could a success. Spread the word, pick up a copy for you and your friends, and be a part of a true-blue grassroots indie film movement. I can’t do it without you!

Order the Lilith DVD and Download by clicking here!

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: Prelude / Vorspiel from Der Rings Des Nibelungen by Wilhelm Richard Wagner.

A requiem to action. This song is my Ride On Valkyries. I love the smell of waffles in the morning.

So big life event - my short sci-fi film project I’ve been working on for the past few months just got greenllit, and we’re going into production RIGHT AWAY. Like ASAP. Like in two weeks. I’ve got a shitload of work to do before we truck out West to the desert, which is going to double for the surface of Mars. Yeah. MARS. That fucking cool.

Long hours ahead and I’ll try to keep this blog updated through it all. At least as much as I can - there’s some really cool new prototype technologies that we’re using that I won’t be able to disclose. Yeah. Fucking cool, isn’t it?

We’re gonna be on a tight budget and an impossible schedule, but hey that’s par for course for me. But overall it’s just great to be directing narrative work again - and this time I just get to direct - no multiple hats. Just. Pure. Directing. I’ve worked hard for this.

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: Knife in the Water by METZ.

I’m in the mood for some solid, breakneck punk rock. Something raw, angry and frayed. I want people to listen to this music and feel like breaking shit.

Just something to spur some activity. Let’s stop tweeting, tumbling and facebooking from the comfort of our sofas for a few days and get out and let our voices not only be heard, but felt. Volunteer this weekend. Let’s do something for someone else, and do it in action, not just in a vocal support of ideology. More than money, the single most valuable thing we can give to someone is our time.

The spirit of punk rock is not a leather jacket and a bolt through your tongue. It’s about being a signal to noise.

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: Amongster by Poliça.

Another brutal week of travel, and I finally got home to Chicago late last night, then it’s back on the road next week. Been hustlin’ for that production money, things went well. But as with anything in the movie business, nothing is final until the ink is dry, and sometimes even that isn’t a final confirmation of things. It’s a brutal business, but we keep doing it because we want to make good art, see great films, and put food on the table.

Despite the insane schedule, I did make some time to see my mom (pops was out of town) in Colorado. It’s important for me, because the comfort of home, a home cooked meal, and the wisdom logic of the woman who brought you into this world is priceless. My mother is a very successful businesswoman, having built her own real estate empire the hard way - buy an apartment or house in distress, rehab it yourself, rent it out, and repeat. She’s done this for thirty years, and her work ethic, grand vision, and persistence with lenders has not lost a beat. My mom knows how to make money from nothing, which is exactly what a film producer needs to do on each and every project. So I went home, sat at the kitchen counter like I used to when I was in middle school, and listened to my mom. She told me that the art of negotiation - of getting what we want from other people - is a simple act of persistence. The minute someone says ‘no’ - which is likely the first thing we hear - that’s when the real negotiation begins. Ask why that person said no, and then correct it. Keep doing it until they can’t say no anymore, but never, ever lose sight of your final goal in the process. Everyone needs to make deals, that’s how we earn a living. So make a deal. Make it worth their time, and get what you need done.

Of course moms have this way of making it sound so effortless, so common sense, so absolutely achievable. But I’ve seen my mom at work, wrestling rhetoric with bankers and contractors. She’s a five-foot ball of fire with a heart of gold, that perfect balance of confidence and humility. It’s an approach that I’ve adopted from both of my parents, which is that confidence will get us through the door, but humility is what will get the job done. It works for us, and it also means that in our lives, we’ll never have to be assholes to anyone. It helps us sleep at night, knowing that we’ve done our part, and we’ve maintained our integrity whilst doing it.

I’m glad I saw my mom. A mother’s love is quite unlike any other kind of love, it’s one of pure nurturing and support, and it will endure even long after they’ve left us. And I don’t know a single person on this planet that couldn’t use a little bit of that. I feel rejuvenated and focused. Thanks, Ma, I’m ready to rock!

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: My TIme by Ann Steel and Roberto Cacciapaglia.(1979)

I’m absolutely drained. This week, beyond rewriting my script and creating development documents, I’ve designed and assembled the Lilith DVD interfaces (animated menus!) and also designed the DVD box art. It’s been a hell of a lot of work, and the DVD has turned into a really beautiful product. It will be ready for presale soon, and I’ll keep you updated.

I’ve also got five drafts of articles for this blog that are in various states of completion. My screenwriting posts are really important and I want to make sure I’m doing them justice. I’ll likely be posting the next installment on Monday.

Lastly, I had a wonderful interview by the kind people at Blackmagic Design (the folks that bring you DaVinci color correcting software and hardware, and the upcoming Blackmagic Cinema Camera), and we got into talking about the creative inspirations behind Lilith and the sources for my creativity in all of my endeavors. The folks at Blackmagic have been constructing an online resource where they’ve created access for everyone to both up-and-coming and seasoned filmmakers alike. They want to get at the core of what filmmakers do, and focus on the creative aspects of filmmaking. Blackmagic and I talked for hours, and it reminded me how much I really do love cinema, art and expression. The people at BM were really impressed and told me that they have no doubts that I’ll be making memorable cinema for the rest of my life. It was so reassuring to hear that, especially at the end of such an arduous and testing week. We talked about the process with my actors, with the massive strides that Julia is making in her career (she’s the lead in a new television sitcom from the makers of 3rd Rock From the Sun, it’s gonna be huge and the world will see how sidesplittingly funny Julia is) and the cusp that Lili Reinhart is on - she’s very close to breaking it big at the ripe old age of sixteen (I’m jealous!). Everyone’s working super hard, focused, with determination and positive energy. In the end I know our work will have value, and our tireless efforts will never be wasted. Our time will come.

Have a great weekend!

Music for the Weekend: Higher Ground by Ellen McIlwaine.

I’ve been asked by a lot of folks about my thoughts on the whole Anti-Islam “film” ‘Innocence of the Muslims’ made by Sam Bacile nee Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and whether the film should be banned OR whether Nakoula should be tried for creating a document of hate with the intent of doing harm. Which is exactly what has happened, as respected US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens, along with three other Americans, were murdered this week by an angry mob responding to the film.

So I remember watching D.W. Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation’ in college with the forewarning that the film was entirely racist with its depiction of the Klu Klux Klan as the heroes of a nation being ravaged by black men (or white men in blackface). The film was also praised as a cinematic masterpiece, one that has come to define modern cinema in terms of technique, style, and storytelling. It’s been a long standing debate as to whether ‘Birth of a Nation’ should indeed be lauded as a deserving masterpiece or be reviled for being the racist piece of shit film that it is. I personally think it is a work of art, and I hate its message with every ounce of my being. But it has a right to exist, and not just because of its artistic merits.

For this blog post I actually did watch Nakoula’s ‘Innocence of the Muslims’ and trust me, it is no ‘Birth of a Nation.’ In fact it’s an outright piece of shit, and a cinematic abomination. It cannot be revered as art in any stretch of the mind, but that’s not the point. Under the First Amendment, Nakoula had every right to make and distribute this film, and there’s nothing we should do to stop that. The film should not be banned, nor should Nakoula be tried for hate crimes. He put his opinion - no matter how myopic and bigoted - on tape and put it out there. That’s his soapbox. That’s his right.

Yelling ‘fire’ in a crowd, or just plain nonsense?

But people have died as a response to this film, and ultimately that is not the film’s fault. The fault lies upon the deluded people who used the film as a convenient excuse to strike - they likely were looking to strike at some point, and a little seen piece-of-shit movie made by a hatemonger who happened to be an American citizen provided a convenient excuse to commit atrocious acts of murder. That’s the nature of our information age - even the tiniest, most obscure pieces of the fringe can be accessed and spread with the same reach and immediacy as Reuters or the Associated Press. The Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad were published in an obscure newspaper that nobody read, and yet it made international news and incensed a lot of people who, in a different time, wouldn’t even know said cartoon even existed. But that’s the new rules of media that we have to play by.

There have however been many news reports from Libya and Egypt showing that the overwhelming Arab population condemns the attacks and are arm-in-arm with the United States, but these reports are not being promoted enough. Strange - I guess the world loves conflict, and peace makes for a boring news day. But let’s be honest - the Arab world themselves are no strangers to incendiary videos, as there are multitudes of extreme fringe groups who create videos calling for the destruction of America, the enslavement of Western women, and the ridding of opposing Islamic/ Christian/ Jewish sects. Hell, I challenge anyone to find a country that doesn’t have a segment of fucking lunatics who make videos calling for someone to die or burn in Hell. They’re everywhere, it’s just that the majority of the world is sensible enough to know that these people are talking absolute nonsense.

In that regard there is Freedom of Speech -which must be upheld at all costs - but along with the Freedom of Speech comes the Freedom to Ignore. Just because someone’s blowing incendiary rhetoric out of their mouths, I’m in no way, shape or form obligated to listen or respond to them. The majority of the world understands this, because majority of the world is reasonably sensible. There is a small minority of the world that is lost and rudderless, and looking to create chaos without reason. Unfortunately they are the ones who occupy 90% of our news media, which makes them appear to be much larger segments of our population than they actually are.

But the First Amendment also assumes a general public that is civil and prudent, an assumption that will always lead to failed expectations and disappointment. People are emotional, and they believe strongly in things. It takes a big person to hear someone lob shit at their beliefs and take the higher ground and simply walk the other way. Most of us are capable of this, many of us are not. That’s how fights start. And there are many, many fights every day, every hour, every minute in this world.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is a piece of shit for making a (really bad) movie rooted in hatred, but he’s only guilty of being a piece of shit, which is not against the law. His movie didn’t instruct Muslims to kill Americans - his film is his own personal twisted doctrine against Islam, and not an American policy perspective on Islam, nor is it a document of how Americans feel about Islam. People are just mad that such a film was allowed to be made in America, which is a bunch of baloney. As aforementioned, every country has its share of lunatics that make divisive, racist films, and the Arab world is one of the biggest offenders of it. If we start policing what films are ‘safe’ and what can possibly cause discontent, then we’ve lost. But in the end, Nakoula broke no tenets of the Constitution in distributing his film, and he is no way legally responsible for American deaths in Libya. Is he morally responsible? Yes, I think so. But that judgement is between him and Satan.

Have a great, safe weekend, friends.