tuckergurl

Small Town Scerets

 
My friend , Katherine's short film, Small Town Secrets just won an Honorable Mention for Best Short Film at The Sundance Film Festival! It is eight minutes and great example of a small film with impact. You should check it out. Here's a little blurb about it:

A highly textured film that travels back to the early 1980s when the filmmaker was growing up with closeted gay parents in a small, mid-western town. By weaving together a collection of home movies and conversations with her parents recorded via webcam, Small Town Secrets remembers why keeping it a secret felt like the only option.

The film will be showing here in New York as part of IFP's Buzz Cuts on Tuesday, February 8th. It turns out that two classmates of mine at Columbia are screening their shorts as well so I might stop by! It's so cool to see my peers doing so well.

Coffee Good For You?

Oh, please God! Please God! Check out this article and keep hope alive!

Hurlyburly

I am intrigued by this new production of Hurlybury performed by The New Group. The Times gave it a great review calling it a "smashing revivial" and Ethan Hawke is pretty solid onstage.

Still, I have always thought that this play is about a half hour too long and an actor's vanity project. I always have. As a theater major in college, everyone, and I mean, everyone, did a monologue from this play. There are some great speeches but it's not all that. And the deadbeat drugged out actor scene in LA is not interesting or appealing to me at ALL. Still I am curious and therefore am torn.

I'll let you know if they get my money. I still regret not seeing Jeremy Piven in Fat Pig Off-Broadway. I love him. Theater, there's nothing really like it, both bad and good.

One thing I AM seeing is The LAByrinth Theater's newest play, THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. That opens in February and stars Sam Rockwell and a bunch of other theater/screen actor types.

It's Cold!!!

And I'm sick of it. And the Kukicha tea that is supposed to keep me caffinated instead of coffee is not working. But it's too too cold to go out and get proper coffee. And I forgot how hard our four floor walkup is in the winter. Two weeks away can really make you soft.

And I am done complaining ... for now ...

The End of the Shoot

I am lying in bed right now. It is 10:13pm and I am trying to fall asleep. Since I had to be on set at 5:30am each morning, I am still on the old woman schedule of going to bed at 9:30/10 to get enough sleep. I want to get back to my old schedule since I do not have to be at work until 10am but it is a long journey.

Academy Award Nominees

Have I said this was a lame year for movies? The nominees are out and are pretty lackluster.

I am really surprised that Paul Giamatti did not make the cut. I'm no big fan of Sideways but if you are one (and many are), it seems strange to not give him a nod.

I am happy about Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace. That was a great performance.

Other than that, I feel sort of blah about it.

Michael Moore would've won Best Documentary in a heartbeat. He already has one so I'm not crying too many tears for him. Honestly, I am really tired of him.

I am most excited to see Chris Rock host it and Jamie Foxx win! Did you know that this was the first year that two African American men have been nominated in the same year in the Best Actor category? That's kind of sad.

The Day Before The Last Day

There is a big snow storm in New York tonight.  This morning we unloaded all of the equipment into our venue.  We thought that might make our lives easier for tomorrow's shoot.  I am worried that people won't make it in because of the storm but I don't want people hurting themselves trying to come out either.  I am just trying to be zen and see.

I was supposed to take a small nap and it became sleep.  Now I am in that strange place where I am really awake at 9pm but will have to leave my house at 5am to get on set at 5:30am so I should go to bed soon.  Not quite sure what to do about that.  Might have a cider.

Have I mentioned I don't have a TV?  It is now starting to get to me.  I am going to have to bring it over to the place I am staying.  I thought I was tougher than this but I'm not.   It's important to know your weaknesses.

Yesterday we shot on the subway and it wasn't as scary as people made it out to be.  No cops.  Of course we were shooting on the J train.  No one and I mean, no one, takes that train.  I am obsessed with people riding trains in movies about New York.  Honestly I am not 100% sure it will make the cut but I had to shoot it.

The owner of the venue that we are shooting at is out of town this weekend so I won't get to tell him off as planned.  Sigh.  I promise in a day or two to tell all but I am still nervous.  I don't want to be one of those dumb people who put all of their stuff out on the internet and then got caught. 

I do want my life back.  Just free time to go to movies and see friends.  I am seeing plenty who are working on the film but I miss not being the center of attention as much as filmmaking forces.  It's incredible to see your vision come to fruition but honestly it's so so draining.

By the way, there are many attractive men on my set.  Have I mentioned this?  They are like 15 years old but they're still nice to look at.

That's all for now.  I am in the middle of A Room Of One's Own.  Haven't read it it a long, long time.  It's been interesting.

More manana ...

Shakespeare Behind Bars

I haven't seen this movie but I am very intrigued by it.  It is one of the many selections at this year's Sundance Film Festival.  Check out this annoying review from Variety about the film:

Volunteer director Curt Tofteland oversees rehearsals, but recedes into the background early on as the pic concentrates on his cast.  During interactions and one-on-one interviews taped on HD video over 37 weeks, felons in the theater program (identified only by first names) gradually reveal themselves as unexpectedly insightful and self-aware. More surprisingly, cons are mostly well-spoken and civil, except for an occasional flurry of "artistic differences" (which, fortunately, are not settled with shivs or smackdowns).

I love "Hollywood speak".  They can't describe people fully.  They have to use words like "cons".   And surprisingly they didn't stab each other during rehearsals.  Um ... ok.  I assume that the men that they allow to be in this program wouldn't be the ones who would stab each other at rehearsals.  And as for their "surprising insight", I won't even go there.

Day 5

It is strange being in a process where you are so absorbed in your own thing, you have no clue what is happening anywhere else in the world.  I heard something about The Golden Globes.  Heard Jamie Foxx won which pleased me but that was about all.  Can't tell you what color Nicole Kidman's dress was or anyone else for that matter.  I hear there is some inauguration.  I am doing my best to stay blissfully ignorant on that.

All I have is a stereo and NPR which works sporadically.  I am staying at a friend's apartment in Williamsburg where we are shooting.  I am staying here until March because Iam trying to find another place.  (I could tell you the whole story but why.  Let's just say it has something to do with wanting to live with fewer people and the cops being invovled.  It sounds a lot more interesting than it is.)  I can stay here while she is gone shooting, rent free.  It's great though Williamsburg is kind of like a movie which is a bit weird.

Yesterday we shot in the freezing, freezing cold in my old apartment.  I have an alley right next to my apartment that we were cheating to look like one of those smoking areas in the back of lounges.  My DP did a great job and it looked fantastic!  But shooting in the cold is really stressful.  The actors are on edge because they have to stand outside in freezing weather and there is always a fear that a neighbor is going to make us stop.

I made my Dad's famous chili (with help from my crew) and boy did it save me money!  I will pass along the recipe to anyone who wants it by the way.

I felt really scattered for some reason.  I had a really hard time getting my shots together for this scene and I can't figure out why.  It is the most dramatic scene in the film so the added anxiety probably helped the scene rather than hurt it.  I think it was the stress of having people shooting in my house that I am about to vacate and need the deposit for and having people outside and not so happy about it.  The crew were all good sports though.

Tonight we are shooting some small shots on the subway.  It's just the DP, the actress and I but since we are poor, of course we don't have a permit!  Keep your fingers crossed that the cops won't come to get us.

Sunday we are back at the venue for the last time and I get to tell off the owner.  I can't wait.  Oh, when we're done, the stories I'll tell.

Days 2-4 On My Flick

I keep wanting to write more about this crazy, crazy process but I don't have my laptop and I get up in the morning at 5am, shoot through 4pm and then meet until easily around 9pm.  Today is my off day and boy do I need it!

My whole film takes place in one location:  a lounge.  This was something that I thought would make my life easier but if anyone has had a film shot in their home/place of work/etc, they know that it really takes over everything and you're lucky if there is no damage.  I have no idea how people shoot without insurance.  No idea.  There is so much venue drama but I won't write fully about it until I have written the owner a check and am out the door.  I'm too superstitious.  All I will say is filmmaking really teaches you about sexism.  I've been working with only women for too long.  I had gotten soft.

Overall the shoot is going really well.  Everyone's morale seems high and I feel like I'm getting what I need.  Shooting a film with five people talking at the same time is a bitch to do.  Coverage is really hard and you're never really sure if you're getting what you need.  I sleep in two hour intervals and wake up afraid that I am going to oversleep. 

One time, one of my actors, after a day of shooting, said to me, "I'm really excited about doing the dialogue scenes.  I've never done one with so many people.  I have no idea how you are going to do it."  I'm not sure if that was an innocent statement or not but I stayed up half the night reading Shot by Shot in sheer panic.  I think it's turning out good and 24P looks really incredible but you can never really tell until you cut it.

Oh, so much more to say but The Internet Garage keeps shutting my computer down and I have to give it more money so I'll stop.  I am staying in Williamsburg and there are like five black people here.  That never stops being weird.  More later.