BOY (15-25): A young introverted/distant type.
MOTHER (30-50): A family-values mother looking for her own piece.
FATHER (30-50): A moderate corporate success story with a family.
WOODS WOMAN (18-30): Lives and knows nature (role requires nudity).
RACKET BALL WOMAN (20-50): A local racket-ball enthusiast.
BRIDGE GIRL (15-25): A girl-next-door type who is also quite sassy.
MORE INFO AT: http://www.mandy.com/1/cast3.cfm?v=54250819

The year 2012 was a year filled with new opportunities and interesting people and grand adventures.  Unfortunately, none of these elements helped me to further my career in media production.  New responsibilities at my IT job have forced me to backseat my progress at RedTere.  I’ve just been trying to hold on until things slowed down enough to pick up where I left off.  To this day, things have not slowed down and I’ve found myself with neither the time nor the energy to be creative in between IT.  However, life is too short to wait until you have time.  If you wait until you have time, you’ll die having accomplished nothing and that won’t be the story my life.

With that said, I’ve spent the last month working on A Drop of Water, a little bit here and there in my free time after work and on weekends.  It’s coming together very slowly but surely.  I’ve gone through periods of love and hate with this project.  When I hit a brick wall in editing, I tend to distance myself from it.  Then I get angry because I’m not working on it; a catch-22.  With the help of some useful insight from my production partner, Chris, I’ve been able to pull the project together into what finally feels like a cohesive experience. What remains is some spit and polish, mostly related to sound mixing and clean up.  As I’ve probably blogged about many times, we had many issues with sound on-set, which resulted in audio that was soft and nearly unusable.  I’ve cleaned much of it up, but there is still some cleaning to do, which I vow to continue doing over the next 1-2 months.

June 11th marks the two-year anniversary of the start of principle photography on A Drop of Water.  Though I won’t make anything official, I’m confident in saying that the film will be complete before that date.  This is the first time I’ve felt confident in over a year.  So many people have asked me about A Drop of Water in the past two years, and it will serve as great closure for me to finally share it with all of the people who made it possible, from the crew to the kickstarter investors, to my friends and family.  I’m excited to finally close this chapter of my life, if only to get onto the next project and put this experience and knowledge into practice.

This is my first blog post of 2013.  This is the first time I’ve had something to say.  It will not be the last time.

TYPO CORRECTION: In the aside about me, it should say Redtere not Redtree.

 to see online: http://emag.imaginenews.com/Index.aspx

You’re probably wondering  why Lara Croft is looking at you.

 Having recently completed the new Tomb Raider game I couldn’t help but wonder about the leaps of faith we all take in our own lives. The game has this running philosophy that not everything in life is approachable by means of logic. It’s consensus is that we sometimes need to take leaps of faith to overcome our obstacles. Lara’s development as a hardened survivor and person that trusts her instinct as well as her rational reflects the journey we all seem to go through in our own lives. Playing the game, you navigate this development while acquiring and improving new skill sets and taking on bigger and bigger challenges. Lara eventually convinces her crew to trust her blind faith in a scenario to get off the island.

While operating on the set of the film may not require you to hunt, gather, and fight to survive, it should require you to be conscious of how your skills are being applied, improved upon, and helpful and efficient to the work of others. Where the blind faith step comes in is is between director and crew. If a director is lacking as a visionary leader, it helps if the team can make up for it. Working together to be supportive and constructive of each other can truly change an atmosphere. The essential component I am talking around is comradery. There are manuals and guides on how to be part of a team but the simple advice I have is be honest with your team and derive some personal meaning from the project for yourself. I can guarantee you will not only enjoy your experience, but will learn and grow with others.

As far as tomorrow goes- besides comradery, I plan on discussing the importance of organization and resource utilization throughout a production. One of the biggest things I could have benefited more from was further utilizing my resources and network outreach to build lasting connections and save even more money during production.  There is no joke to the expression “don’t burn your bridges”- although you may not be able to save and keep in touch with all your acquired connections- it is important to keep a high priority on your own self-development, as well as your relations with others. Building trust and a welcoming atmosphere within a production creates a factory for meaningful creations. This doesn’t mean become condescending to others- it means become honest with others and yourself, while striving to reach your goals.

As well as network out reach, lighting diagrams are another thing that could have benefited the production- these would have been key in communicating the schematics of the film’s lighting design to the crew. Many times on Moving Stone, the crew would have to turn to the cinematographer to know what exactly their next task was. While on communication, it is not only essential to running a team environment, but can be forever improved upon. It is important to understand that talking isn’t always communicating- interpersonal humbled understanding is. Among other things, I will most likely also share snippets of my own on-set experiences and perceptions of the creative process.

I will probably leave them with: The greatest followers make the greatest leaders. Lara knows that.

PICTURE SOURCE: http://www.pixelenemy.com/all-tomb-raider-dlc-to-be-multiplayer-based/

“It took me a while to realize that you can’t change it all at once it’s gonna take multiple people at separate stages of people’s lives, talking and making a difference, it’s not just gonna take me.”

Now how does this quote (or this film) effect me or anyone who reads the Redtere blog posts? I could easily say the answer to bullying is to stick up for yourself, communicate your emotions and your logic, take responsibility for your actions, and learn to understand your intuition about things, but this kid more accurately proves a point about the human condition and filmmaking than I can. And that is that life is a shared experience. The fact that I saw this film and am now writing a blog entry about it when I could be replaying the first two Resident Evil games says something. It says that someone needs to make a ####ing movie to make me pay attention to my own common sense. Although films are brilliant for that ability, I can’t help but think that that also says there’s a disconnect in society. Without going into my own opinions of the pros and cons of technology I’ll tangent (but not really- you’ll see) into another doc I watched recently.

Sound City! A cheap a$$ recording studio out in Van Nuys, Cali where Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, and Fleetwood Mac recorded (among many others). So what’s the pertinence to Dave Grohl’s expensive home video about him buying a recording studio mixing board (that helped launch his career) and putting it in his house? Well, Davie knows a thing or two about humanity. He asks, “In this age of technology, where you can manipulate anything, how do you retain that human element?” I think Mick Fleetwood takes a good stab at answering this (not directly and in a separate interview) by saying : “The downside these days is thinking ‘I can do this all on my own’- yes you can do this all on your own, but you’ll be a much happier human being to do it with other human beings and I can guarantee you that.” I’m not sure anyone can readily or honestly say, ‘the person who I am does not require me to have anyone else in my life.’ An interesting outlier the film seems to present to this idea is Trent Reznor: A man who is clearly secluded for most of his writing and recording processes but holds an ultimate purpose for it in that it is part of who he is. In that sense, it is a major part of his identity, but yet he is still capable of sharing it with others and letting others manipulate it (as illustrated in a jam in the film). Now to wrap this all up in a nice bow I could say I think this film, teamed with Bully, illustrates a diminishing connection between human beings on many levels and that we need to be the change we wish to see (as Mr. Ghandi would say), but things are said much better by people like the southern girl and Mick Fleetwood. That may be me being hard on myself but the truth is we are moved by stories of people’s personal growth (which I have myself have had in my own life but is personal and not for to be shared in a commercial blog like this one). The only thing I can end with asking is if we can no longer share each other’s company, are we alone?

Check out that video here:

Music Courtesy of Junkbox.

Recently, to understand the man behind RedTere I have begun an expedition through classic exploitation and horror films. My most recent venture being Rosemary’s Baby. Always having an urge to see this movie, I decided to wander on down to Newbury Comics and pick it up- but as you would know it, I ended up picking up three other films as well (at used price of course cause I’m cheap). Anyway, I throw in Rosemary’s Baby and instantly get thrown into that Polanski nostalgia: Eerie music and a long panning shot open the film. The most interesting effect I took from Polanski’s classic horror tale was its ability to lock you into an atmosphere where you know somethings clearly off-kilter and still allow you to readily understand the emotions of the protagonist. On a side note- I don’t mean to be rough on modern American Horror (I do), but much of it lacks this effect and chooses to trade off spectacle-based reaction with empathy-based. Some writer’s would say the key is to make it personal and imagine yourself as the character- which brings me to the second film I bought.

Having been a Kaufman fan for sometime (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine) I finally stumbled upon Kaufman’s self-reflective (but not really, but maybe) Adaptation. Although this is not horror, it is an interesting meditation on understanding who you are and finding hope- which, ironically, compliments and follows-up quite nicely to the story of Being John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich is alluded to many times in the film). The main protagonist (played by Nicholas Cage) takes his writing very seriously and very personally and it causes him to have trouble emotionally with the people around him. His tunnel vision for his adaptation of a book on flowers he’s writing is complimented by the story of the woman who wrote the book on said  flowers (I know, try to get your head around that one haha). Although she is writing about a man who is breaking the law to pursue his passion (flowers), she senses a longing for wanting something so badly or maybe even being wanted in that way. In a simplistic sense, the film seems to meditate heavily on perfection and its consensus, I would argue, seems to be that perfection cannot be attained, at least systematically; it needs to be found naturally and through hope and faith in others. It is a film I would suggest to anyone who wants to be a writer. Sort of brings me to my third film.

And third but not least ( I won’t bother mentioning the fourth)- having always been curious of Lost In Translation, but never having the motivation to give it a chance- until now- I’m glad I did. Basically a middle-aged actor (Bill Murray) goes to Tokyo and has a fun time with a complete stranger (Scarlett Johansson) who is young and lost (identity-wise). The most beautiful thing I found about the film was its ability to capture the states of the characters and reflect it in visuals as well as music. Although to most modern viewers the film may appear plotless on a first viewing, I think it is completely necessary and actually pays homage to foreign arthouse and existential films quite well. In fact, it is probably one of the most classic-foreign-American films I have ever seen. It also strums on Adaptation’s understanding who you are and finding hope. For somebody who is lost, I think this film would make them feel at home (at least for its running length).

So to tie this all together I would have to say I started talking about horror and went on a complete tangent. Well, hope you enjoyed it and will join me for future bloggings. Until next time, saving the world one blog at a time- love, your friendly neighborhood Bloggerman.

After meeting up with the band, we convoyed out to Gorham, Maine to shoot two videos, utilizing a cool lofted barn and and a beautiful field of rolling hills.  If you could turn off the sense of touch, it would have been total bliss.  By that, I mean that the insect population of Gorham, Maine had the feast of a lifetime yesterday.

The shoots themselves went pretty well.  We didn’t even know what songs we were doing until arriving at the location, so this shoot was as guerrilla as they come.  The band is an absolutely blast to work with.  They all click, creatively and artistically.  Every performance take we shot was as tight as the last, which is true to the experience of seeing them live.  They’ve never had an off-day, in my experience.  We shot from 11am until about 3pm, when we went to late lunch.  Upon returning, we did some promotional photography of the band and watched one of the most gorgeous sunsets I’ve ever seen.

Tim accidentally told the GPS to avoid tolls, so we ended up driving back roads from Maine into New Hampshire before finally finding our way to 95 south.  We still encountered two tollbooths, so I can’t figure how many we actually avoided.  By the way, where the hell do the states of Maine and New Hampshire find their tollbooth workers, besides cemeteries and morgues?

Back on topic, I don’t know when it will be released.  Dave has taken on the role of editor, so ask him.  All in all, we had a blast and we all look forward to the next shoot.

The story is a little complex for the running time.  We’re introduced to a litany of characters, many of whom we don’t get the chance to know.  Some of whom we don’t give a shit about anyway, but there is one character in particular who begged for more development: Victoria Winters.  Timmy Burton does a big n0-no.  He makes the love interest between Barnabas Collins and Victoria Winters the centerpiece of the movie, but her character, nor their romance have enough screen time to give that plot line the weight it needs to resolve the damn movie.  Everything else, in my opinion works.  How great is the impact of this mediocrity on the rest of the film, you ask?  Minimal, to moderate, I’d say.  The lack of a meaningful payoff in the relationship leaves you with a sort of fluffy feeling when it’s all over.  It’s good popcorn fun, but you’re never anchored.  If I’d been more compelled by the love story, I’d have been right there with it.  The blame is in the scope of the movie.  A vampire wakes up from a 196 year nap and he’s got madd shit to do. Therefore, he has to prioritize and neglect the woman he loves to get some other high priority shit done.  I guess it would have been nice if Barnabas (and Burton) acknowledged that.

Enough complaining.  One thing I loved about the film was the dramatic shift in tone from one scene to the next.  The film has this airy sensibility at times, when suddenly we’ll witness graphic savagery as Barnabas attacks various characters.  For every three moments of comedy, there were two moments of drama, and one moment of horror.  The stakes felt real many times, which is usually the problem with movies that so playfully mix reality with fantasy.  Dark Shadows succeeded on that front.  The elegance of the horror reminded me of a Spanish film, like Pan’s Labyrinth or The Orphanage.

I wouldn’t be me without mentioning the cameo appearance of Alice Cooper.  Anyone who knows me knows that Alice Cooper is my all-time favorite musician/band, so this movie was a must-see.  His performance is a blast – a highlight of the flick! Without spoiling too much, I’ll say that some of the biggest laughs in the movie come at his expense.  Kudos to Tim Burton for the supremely effective use of the Ballad of Dwight Fry.  A wonderful song backing some of the more meaningful visuals in the film.  Chilling at times.

Anyway, I’ve said enough.  I’m boring myself to sleep.  Go see the flick and decide for yourself.

EDIT: How could I forget to mention the soundtrack?  Grade A, 6 stars.  Pure late 60s/early 70s rock.  See the damn movie.  See it.