(notes i make to myself. myself from yesterday).
My friend, Gilbert Tuhabonye, stopped in Dripping Springs yesterday to recount the story of his life. The turnout for his talk was incredible. Gilbert is a hero in a world that has less and less true heroes.
(Pictured: Press conference after the event, photos: Ed Vaughan).
The chord? F#m (sus 4).
I’ve always admired the placement and amplitude of the lighting in this video and the projections onto the helmet are undeniable Kubrick grabs. But Hey! They’re British.This was modeled after Houdini’s Last Trick. Very 2001: A Space Odyssey. They undercranked the camera speed to allow a minute and a half to elapse while submerged.
I watched the film ‘Tree of Life’ today and it reminded me of this film within a film from ‘What Just Happened.’ ‘Tree of Life’ was like watching the Discovery Channel for forty minutes. You can do that at home. And add your own dialogue. I was told a couple of years ago by friends that are feature film editors in LA — that anytime a film shows you the end of the film at the beginning — it’s in trouble. Editors use that trick to ‘pump’ a movie that isn’t working… At about thirty minutes into the cut — eight people got up and left. I kept looking at my watch thinking that I’d do the same but I’d give it an hour. I remember thinking throughout the film that I needed to go through my t-shirt collection and weed out what wasn’t being worn anymore… I ended up staying for the ending but really thought it was a cliched film and very unprovocative. It had just been well hyped. I’m still not sure why Sean Penn was in the film or anyone else really. They all had small parts when compared to the ‘artistic-discovery-channel’ visuals. It was a two hour and change film that could well have been cut to an hour twenty. The film clip, although a send-up, has the same sort of exaggerated scenes but plays better. Maybe because you knew it was a send-up. And this clip has more Sean Penn than you will see in the two hour ‘Tree of Life’. I wondered if the eight people that left early asked for a refund. Marketing muscle continues to be worth more than content.
Life goes on… eh?
Addendum:
I read a review that likened Malick to Kubrick. The review said that there were ‘Kubrick-Like’ moments in ‘Tree of Life’s’ visuals. I paraphrase. The footage was beautifully photographed — it took itself too way too seriously with the excessive and ‘too hip’ camera moves. But back to the original story and the reason why Malchick ain’t the Kube. If you looks at the visuals Kubrick shot they are completely original photographically. He didn’t rip them from another director. Not even as homage — by that he pushed the art form further culturally. Secondly, Kubrick designed ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in the 60’s with an eye towards what the future — 2001 specifically — and what that year might look like. I wanted to review the film 2001 to take a look at a specific scene that occurs at 1:30:09 into the cut. Considering they were designing 2001 in the sixties — someone had to do an immense amount of head scratching as to what the future would, indeed, look like. And Kubrick was pretty damned correct for a 40 year guess. Malick, on the other hand, really didn’t do anything other than ‘lift’ Kubricks’ theses and ‘rip’ the visuals that Stanley had used 40 years earlier. Nice try on the Kubrick connection media — but connection denied.
It does go back to the cover being more valuable than the contents of the book. Doesn’t it lab rats?
I’ve seen this covey of quail once before near the house. I’ve seen maybe two covey’s in 12 years. Very rare.
TTIF Storyboard 6-28-11 from Ed Vaughan on Vimeo.
This is the completed storyboard based on the sure-to-be-changing screenplay TTIF. I drew the illustrations over the last four weekends and am pretty sure that I don’t want to see a digital tablet for a long while. That said: I just added an opening scene to replace a couple that were not working that well. Another scene came to me last night — that could be interesting. Did I just say that it would be a while before I used the digital tablet again? What a liar…
We began adding in dialogue to the storyboard after fits and starts in the recording process — one thing led to twenty — but all solved now. Well, sort of. It’s interesting — after you’ve made several goes at getting the written page recorded — you begin to, because of ¿boredom? — to muck about with dialogue. It is producing some very interesting results that will feed neatly into the next re-write. The things we do for love.
chasing KEINO. from Ed Vaughan on Vimeo.
Follow six distance runners from Nairobi, Kenya as they prepare for the US marathon season by training in Santa Fe, NM. The altitude and climate are similar to the runners native homeland. They work in teams, helping runners with weaker skill sets so that they can race more effectively. The money won through marathon racing is repatriated to Kenya. Rather than buying sports cars and bling, these athletes spend their marathon winnings in their hometowns — developing apartments that create local jobs or buying agricultural land to help the local economy and their neighbors improve their quality of life.
I directed and produced this film in late 2009. It was accepted into 10 domestic and International Film Festivals. It was given to President and Michelle Obama by US Senator Jeff Bingaman last June.
Raymund D Nasher from Ed Vaughan on Vimeo.
I brought Mr Nasher to Austin in 2006 to speak to the burgeoning arts community about ‘Collecting & Philanthropy’. This is an excerpt of the film that I made on 12 November 2006. It remains a great treasure of mine. Guys like Ray Nasher are a rarity in today’s world. They are, unfortunately, being replaced by cheaper, less humanistic and less visionary models. And that is a downstroke for the future of all things cultural.