general conditions.

WILL REPOST VIDEO – BACK IN EDITING BAY
This is test footage using various camera mounting systems. The hope was that it would be transferrable for some helicopter tracking shots. On second thought — I don’t think so… That was BBC 1 audio playing while footage was taken – a complete subset. We don’t want to make a film on Afghanistan. But we very like the French chanteuse thing. Lovely.

Ciao, bellas!

Thanks Jolie for coming out and handling sound and cameras.

Let’s choose this one and be done with it. Right, Christian?

I kept trying to plant the audio from the “Christian Bale On-Set-Blow-Up-Rant” that made the rounds not long ago into this post – but couldn’t get the audio formatting right. It is in the spirit of that rant, that I present these film posters… Very Frustrating.

I saw the German film “Baader-Meinhof Komplex” yesterday. There was a scene in which a group of the RAF kill a German cabinet Minister in his home. As they are leaving the voice-over says: “…the Minister had no problem sending countless soldiers to their deaths in wars – but was dumbfounded when confronted with the reality of his own death.” Ironical. An interesting film chronicling a very torn period in US and European history.

This was the book of photographs that Astrid Proll published in 1998 on the RAF. Originally, the book was entitled “Photos on the Run: 1967 – 1977”. A friend had given me an original hardbound copy when I lived in Sun Valley, ID. After the World Trade Center was attacked – I threw the book away in disgust. To find the same original copy today, if you can locate it in Germany, will cost you $300USD large. It has, however, been published again. Oddly, this newer publication is entitled “Hans und Grete”, which forced a reacquaintance with “Hansel and Gretel”, the mediaeval tale by the Brothers Grimm. I had forgotten about that fairy tale – but to describe it as Grimm is to undercook the story. Very creepy. It seems, in retrospect, that it should be reconsidered as a kid’s tale.

I read that Jim Jarmusch when filming, “Ghost Dog”, asked Disney if he could use some of Disney’s cartoon footage in his film. Disney declined, saying that they didn’t want their cartoons shown in a violent context. Jarmusch’s counterpoint was – cartoons have more violence in them than most films… Ironical. And to that end – we shall say – Good Morrow.

I was beginning to worry for a moment that the only places that could appreciate the Kenyans were foreign countries. It’s really incredible having it screen in Santa Fe.

OK. So, checklist:

A. You get to film in Santa Fe, NM,
B. you get to use great industry personnel,
C. you get a 25% production cost rebate,
D. the rebate is addressed in a timely manner, and
E. your film gets selected for screening at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

There’s not much left to wish for I’m afraid.

Thanks again to everyone that helped make it happen.

I’m not really Jack Flash, but for some reason this snap reminded me of the photo of Mick Jagger’s cut hand in the seventies. And I do like the song. Warhol might have done a print of Jagger’s stitched hand…. We have been constantly adjusting car camera mounts over the last three days to get positioning and exposure correct. We will more than likely budget for some helicopter shots – so all of the car research will be “somewhat” transferrable. So all the while I’m digging around for a screwdriver or allen head wrench to relocate the mounts or the cameras that are attached. After having lost both screwdriver and allen head wrenches – it was recommended that a version of the “Leatherman-All-Purpose-Tool” might be an advantageous purchase. The model that seemed best equipped was “the Cruncher”. So it arrives today and after having cut it from it’s plastic display casing – I was ready to give it a whirl. So I open it up and… it was like having a pissed-off cat in a burlap bag that had been on a centrifuge for 2 hours while drinking Scotch on the rocks – the first thing it does is pinch me a good one and then it proceeds to slice at my fingers (see above). (The thumb was lost, that’s not trick photography). It also unscrewed my belt buckle, sawed a leg off of a small wooden table and cut, from my edit, about three minutes of run-time before I wrestled it shut and back in it’s case. This is definitely an outdoor tool.

You have been warned.

May 17, 1975: Mick Jagger smashes his hand through a restaurant window in Montauk, Long Island, requiring twenty stitches on his wrist.

Couldn’t find the actual photo. But he didn’t lose a thumb.