IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASY

Making a beautiful independent film that looks and feels like the best international festival fare isn't going to be easy, but...

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.” - Orson Welles

Yumi falls in love, Summer 2006

Wes Anderson

Everyone's seen this, but if you haven't...Wes Anderson's American Express commercial is here on Rob's blog.

TANGENT

Canadian Film. I'm Canadian and I make films. There is a problem, however, with Canadian film (French Canadian film is exempt). Our funding bodies and educational institutions beat us over the head with Canadian themes and images, the immigrant experience, an old woman stares out from a Saskatchewan farmhouse porch, Hockey (I'm actually a big fan of the sport), Curling, Sasquatch, and the like...but worst of all is our lack of self-confidence in creating the universal. Europeans, Koreans, Russians, and (Independent) American filmmakers don't seem to suffer from this low self-confidence (actually everywhere else in the world, Thailand, Japan, Australia, nobody seems to suffer like English Speaking Canadians).

Some great films slip through the cracks. I'm not an apologist, and I've studied and enjoyed too many Canadian films to list here, but let's examine a few things with similar budgets:

Men with Brooms: Amelie
The Delicate Art of Parking: Incident at Loch Ness
Eve and the Firehorse: City of God
Rub & Tug: Brick

WE CAN MAKE GOOD FILMS THAT FEATURE THE UNIVERSAL or...we can make Mambo Italiano.

Content is everything. If we remove any and all responsiblity/obligation on the part of the artist to "insert" anything, including (but not limited to) Canadian locations, the recent Canadian immigrant experience, kids, sentimentality (Whale Rider style...not Canadian, but come on...yuck), incest, farming, snow, sasquatch, hockey, and goofy Corner Gas style humour. We can make good films.

Please say something to somebody about the infrastructure that perpetuates our move away from the Universal. Help guide us out of the provincial into the Universal. Help me help you...

Rant complete.


WE'VE MADE SOME GOOD ONES:
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Crash (1996)
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Cube
Dead Ringers
Le Déclin de l'empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire)
Exotica
Ginger Snaps
Goin' Down the Road
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions)
Jésus de Montréal (Jesus of Montreal)
Last Night
Léolo
Meatballs
Mon oncle Antoine
New Waterford Girl
Porky's
Prom Night
Scanners
The Sweet Hereafter
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Videodrome
waydowntown
Whale Music

P.T. Anderson on IFC

Check it HERE

Best advice: "just don't give a fuck"

SHOOTING SCRIPT

Now it's time to turn the Spec script into a shooting script.

Met (in person or via email) some great camera operators/DOP/DP's, those artists who paint with light. Most have offered to work on a deferred basis, others have offered to work for much less money than they would normally get and throw in their equipment, some have offered to work on deferral and throw in their equipment. Every one of their offers has been humbling and is very much appreciated. I'm going to have to settle on the shooting format within the next week or two.

If I had a budget I would shoot this on Super16mm film.

I bought the DVX100 to shoot YUMI IN LOVE in SD miniDV, but who knows...I just need a bit of money...

YUMI

If we're on the set of Yumi in Love and it starts to feel like a regular movie, too many people hanging around, roles and rules and standard procedures, something WILL be done to fuck all that up. We're not making the usual here people. And that's a PROMISE.

We're going commando, Altman style (however tightly scripted), new school with old school charm. Dogme 2006. The year of Yumi. The year of shooting dangerously.

UPDATE

Updated the cast page for yumi in love

WISDOM FROM RR

Just finished Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. A few pearls to share:

"Sometimes it's good to have less money and resources because you're forced to be creative. Low-budget movies put a wall in front of you and only creativity will allow you to figure out how to get around that wall. The less money and/or resources you have, the more you are forced to be creaiive. And what is a movie anyway? A completely creative endeavor. Anything you can do to get away from the things that aren't important, the better chance you have of being truly creative."

SLEEPY DOGGIES

DON'T BREAK THE ANTI-RULES

Or do...it might make a better film. This is important.

Ray Carney's rules should be required learning for anybody with even a passing interest in any form of artistic expression.

LOW BUDGET DOES NOT EQUAL "INDEPENDENT FILM"

Saw Hard Candy yesterday. My friend Rob's review says everything that there is to say about this film and it's place in the world.

This film/premise may have made a compelling episode of Vegas or CSI (if either of those are your cup o' tea, they're not mine), but they still would have needed a lot more in the way of story.

WEBSITE UPDATE

www.yumiinlove.com

I just registered the new domain and uploaded the site.

The PREVIOUS FILMS section is brand new and there's a new short little clip in there.

The YUMI site is still up at www.ashleypark.net (in the FILMS section), but now it's at www.yumiinlove.com as well. The PREVIOUS FILMS section is new on both sites.

The short film DO YOU MIND IF I TELL YOU A STORY? is pretty close to being 100% finished, or abandoned...for those who believe a film is never finished but only abandoned at some point...I tend to that way of thinking myself...there's always something else to do...

Yumi Falls in Love this July. Nice.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING

On Yumi Producer Tyler's recommendation, I'm reading the Polish Brothers book. It's very inspiring, even if their Independent Filmmaking involves films with budgets between $400,000 and 2 Million dollars.

They do have some really fantastic stories. A great read.

Also purchased "Feature Filmmaking at used-car prices" By Rick Schmidt.

GULF STREAM

If you are so inclined, you may read my short story JESUS, JACKSON, AND STEVE NINJA in issue 25 of The University of Florida's literary magazine, GULF STREAM. If literary fiction is your cup of tea...drink up!

The Avatar Review

Two of my short stories have been published in the Summer edition of The Avatar Review. For anyone interested in that type of action...

READ THEM HERE

Thanks to the kind folks at The Avatar Review!