random stuff

Started by pete, April 25, 2004, 12:25:47 AM

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pete

new song called "pompeii sunday" on www.myspace.com/petelee . give it a listen and lemme know what you think.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

http://www.thestuntpeople.com/forthecrew/the_shitload.mpg

we've had a bunch of new people in our stunt crew so I grabbed a crappy camera and we shot a fight with them in a bathroom stall for three or four hours this past sunday.  it was also my first time doing more extensive choreography with these guys.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

I'm right now finishing up a movie I've been working on since forever.  I cut together a little trailer just to try to get more people excited.  dunno if it works.  here.
I did everything for the movie.  I directed, shot, edited, choreographed, wardrobbed, propped, and all that.  it's got I think people from every ethnicity and class in there I think.  only music and makeup are done by professional people (devotchka is providing me a few tracks, so is david garza.)

trailer

download it here
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Gold Trumpet

Much props for the trailer, Pete. What I don't think everyone knows is that Pete has been sending me his stuff for a while now. Usually it ends with me being too honest in my opinion, but I like this trailer. As all trailers do, it shows random images from the movie to show the breath of the movie in imagery and action, but I appreciated the well handled camera shots that were clearly thought out in order to show the theme running in the story. Camera placement is obviously huge in filmmaking and some scenes here worked very well.

Also, indie filmmaking like this is always ten times more inspirational for me than any large budget film so I'll be a fan of Pete's work.

Pubrick

Losing the Horse's avatar reavealed.

that's a great trailer/title/theme song/tagline(?).
under the paving stones.

pete

to prep for this upcoming feature with my stunt crew, which is still at least a year away, my buddies and I have started doing shorts to train new people and try some choreography ideas.  We shot one yesterday, enjoy.  I know the comedy is not that great, but we're trying to get stunt guys to be comfortable in front of the camera and this was our first step.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

nobody checked out the fight?  I was in it for like a second!
I have a new song up on my myspace profile called "Lil' Liza Jane".  It's an American traditional with my new words.  Check it out and I hope you like my new words.

http://www.myspace.com/petelee
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

the first 10 minutes to my movie, Hakuma Hallelujah.  it's about 40 minutes long.  the opening credits is missing, and the audio is unmixed.  but this is it.

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

children with angels

Very nice! I like it a lot. I really enjoy the way you move kind of effortlessly between different genre worlds but keep them all within this one style: it seems like a sweet little U.S. indie movie with the kid, then it changes to a sort of comedy/action thing, then you also have this very real-feeling documentary style with the guy in the park. But it all blends and moves fluidly rather than feeling artificial (note, GT: this is kind of what I meant when I was praising the mixing of genres..). I very much liked the history speech obliquely commenting on all the silly conflict stuff too - reminded me a little of Half Nelson. So, yeah - well done: I'd definitely like to see the rest.
"Should I bring my own chains?"
"We always do..."

http://www.alternatetakes.co.uk/
http://thelesserfeat.blogspot.com/

Gold Trumpet

I liked it. It sets up a good tone and pacing. The story should get more interesting as it goes along.

Back to Children With Angels..Yes, genre mixing can serve a lot of purpose, but I don't think doing it in a superficial way really does work. I love the filmmakers who bleed them together but wrap them in a narrative that is their own.

To illustrate my point, my favorite Jazz musician Dave Douglas started in the early 90s by doing jazz suites that celebrated different periods and different musicians. Everyone said he was talented and capable of mixing everything, but they all said he sounded too "jazzy".

When Douglas developed he began to develop sounds and tendencies that became all his own. He didn't stop meshing different time periods or artists, but he blended them into his music in a way that the references weren't the first things you heard. It was Douglas' own sounds that you heard.

I think Paul Thomas Anderson has achieved this type of narrative power in his films. I've liked all of his work to some degree because he has aligned his films with a talented vision all his own. His references aren't a bad thing, but they will be if he doesn't step up his ambition to allow the material to be as ambitious as the filmmaking. There Will Be Blood could do that.

When I think of simple genre mixing, I think of combining styles and identities but doing so in a way that just satisfies the hallmark of one of those genres. I also think of filmmakers who use style mixing to just tell stories that exist in a irreverent state without any meaning. The Coen Brothers usually fufil that.

See, genre mixing isn't even new. It's been around forever in all national cinemas and even before breakthrough films like Citizen Kane. Every filmmaker and technician has borrowed different aspects of another genre or style to fit their own work.

The Hollywood system of the 30s through 50s showed that studios can exist to tell one kind of film and do so for ridiculous conventions without any innovation or strive to have deeper meaning. Filmmakers sometimes played around with these stories, but never to serious challenge under the Hollywood studio. It's just for some reason these films because influential because each genre has a style to it and over zealous critics in France attached themselves to something that wasn't very interesting.

Art cinema has had tendencies in every country and age, but it is not equivalent to Hollywood genres. That's ridiculous and simplistic.

pete

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

new song called "whale highway" on myspace.
www.myspace.com/petelee
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

a short "book trailer" I made for Rutgers University Press to promote a book on the post 9/11 conservative movement.
a 5-year old Mexican boy debates a young Republican.

http://www.vimeo.com/1085518
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

pete

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

last days of gerry the elephant

You're like an explosive pack of creativity, aren't you.