Maya Angelou and umbc

Heard from the office of Maya Angelou. Encouraging words to contact Ms. Angelou’s literary agent. I cealled. They’re out for the holiday weekend. I’ll call Tuesday.

Meanwhile, getting a plan of action ready for pending UMBC meeting. I want to go into it fully prepared knowing what I want from them and with a clear vision of the final product — in this case Old School’s opening title sequence and website.

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to get the rougu cut of Sam McCready to Henninger for color correction (was going to wait til next year when I had more cash, saving as much as I can now for L.A., but discovered I have a lot more than originally thought … :0)

Sent off letter to UMBC on Tuesday or Monday. heard from President Hrabowski today! Hope to have meeting scheduled soon. Looking for some support for Old School, New School from my alma mater. :0)

The Red Shoes

Watched “The Red Shoes” just because I’d never seen it  before and a cinematographer friend raved — rightly so — about the photography. Moira Shearer  gave a great performance!

my heroes

Got a lot done with letters — some more out to potential subjects — big fish, too – Hrabowski, Ken Burns, Frederick Wiseman, Ross McElwee, finally tracked down and a bunch of request s to Greater Talent in NYC ,,, many big fish there. I’m especialyl excited about Wiseman and McElwee, my heroes from film school.

Watched De Sica’s Bicycle Thief again today. Such a depressing yet powerful work. Always makes me feel such pity for those people struggling as they did, trying for basic survival. Makes me all the more thankful for what I have today. Such inspirational storytelling, too. Makes you want to pick up a camera and go for it!

prep for shoot

dinner with dad at a new Japanese restaurant.

Colected/scanned some old production photos for cinematography.tv .. they  needed it for b-roll in my upcoming interview. Lots of memories going through those old photos.

Got letter to agents of potential subjects completed about 11pm. Will mail priority tomorrow. Gotta get things ready for the shoot in Los Angeles — the next recordings for Old School, New School! Had another telephone meeting with a DP there, continuing to find the  right ones for this job.

Independent Film Channel

Letter off to IFC in Canada re: Old School, New School.

breathless and the essentials

Even though tonight was a writing session, I did get work done on designing the Old School New School website, plus some calls to potential DPs in Los Angeles.

I constantly remind myself to define the purpose of each scene, and how it can advance the story, what does it reveal about character, and how does it help define the overall themes (keeping the fundamentals sharp is essential!).

Watched the extras on my 2 disc set of Breathless … old interviews with Jean Seberg and Godard, plus some of the crew — always an enjoyable education

CCS, NFAA, and EMMY

Follow up w CCS about some PR and potential subjects. Call with NFAA about potential sponsors. Lots of research on people (potential subjects) and companies (potential sponsors). Nice chat with filmmaker friend John Chester who’s doing very well in Los Angeles. We reminisced about our days in Baltimore hanging out in cafes and having intellectual conversations about art. Special times. :0)

He was the DP on Silence of Falling Leaves. “Our first Emmy nomination!” I recalled with a pleasant smile. What do you remember most about that production, he asked? “You, me, and your dog Flash out in the woods shooting a movie.”

John laughed. “That’s right! I brought Flash. He was in so many productions. He worked more than some humans I know.”

Watched Finian’s Rainbow. Coppola in his youth. :0)

int’l festivals and lots of other stuff

aug 4 

Prepping for INt’l Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tenn.  It’s in Ocotber. Looking at the scheduled storytellers , there were two who instantly struck my interest and upon further investigation found one to be connected to a large int’l storytelling center in the UK. That led to some exciting discoveries which I’ll follow up on in the days to come.

Yesterday chatted with my cousin Anne-Marie who is a VP at one of the banks here in Baltimore.. Seeing what the options are for sponsorship there. Zoltan Feher at the Embassy of Hungary is checking with some contacts of his. The goal is to get sponsorship for this next trip to Los Angeles.

 

need to call CCS (the PR firm introducing me to some top cinematographers as on-camera subjects) back to  arrange meeting. hoping to get estimate for cost of service.

 

Watched “Les Destinee” and “Saints & Soldiers”.

 

Exhausted now. veyr late. going to bed. yawn.