Houston & Mercer

photo copyright 2009 sujewa ekanayake

Filmmaker article on day jobs

I was going to write "day job hell" but day jobs, even though they take time & energy away from film projects, makes those same projects possible - so, I guess sometimes an annoying friend of indie filmmakers. Check out Filmmaker Mag's article on indie filmmakers & day jobs.

A video about an interesting & old religion that's down to about 200,000 members world wide

Encountering all the religious mythology & historical quotations in Stargate SG1 (as I catch up on missed episodes on Hulu & Netflix DVDs) made me look up some of the lesser known old religions. Zoroastrians (NYT article, wikipedia) are interesting: the religion has the familiar concept of good vs. evil & the world being the space where the long battle between the two takes place, and the religion encourages individual choice, and is not interested in monasticism. Here is a video about a documentary about Zoroastrians:

Crisis in Faith: Zoroastrians Today

Awesome - President to have beer with Dr. Gates & Sergeant Crowley

Great move by the Prez, read all about it here.

A news video from the new, Chinese owned, Onion

The Onion has been sold to a Chinese company, & they've made some changes to their morning news show:


Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman

Hot Tub Time Machine trailer

Oh yeah, you know I am going to check this out:

Comment from an angry Humpday fan

This was a comment re: my post about Humpday & G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I've been laughing about it for days:

"Wait. So you "definitely want to see GI Joe" - a big budget Hollywood piece of crap although you admit "it might suck" but you're "not so sure" about Humpday?? Someone with no budget roots and really no real budget and you dont support, no forget that, you are not the least bit interested in something more real and honest and a more organic way of working that has coming out of the no budget digital community that you claim for years to support and you wont support it?

So typical. You subtly hate on any no budget film that achieves ANY level of mainstream success. I guess you only support DIY work that has to rely only on DIY distribution. Tully was right. You are a fucking fraud.

Your blog is done. You have been exposed. Thanks for the heads-up warning, Tully."

So, watchout bloggers, don't say that G.I. Joe might be better than Humpday (really, who would take such a comparison seriously? Besides Anonymous quoted above), 'cause you might get some angry comments.

I still think those two movies may work together well - or, a movie that combines the two worlds - the world of Humpday & G.I. Joe might work better than the two separate movies. Get on it people, a big budget mumblecore action movie! It's what the world needs for next summer.

- Sujewa

Positive review of Humpday in The Washington Times

The Washington Times is the conservative paper in DC (not as good as The Washington Post, in my opinion), & they've got a positive review of Humpday today. From the review:

"In this way, "Humpday" is less about the blurring boundaries of male friendship than an examination of a classic alpha-male power struggle. It's impossible to believe either man actually wants to have sex with the other.

Instead, they appear to be more interested in figuring out how far they can push things in order for the other guy to back down first. Setting this struggle within the world of the liberal artistic community gives it an extra freshness, if not the edgy transgressive quality some critics have assigned the picture: After all, Michael Mann has been examining alphas going toe to toe for years."

Times gives it 2 & 1/2 stars, not sure what that means in their context (do they go up to 3 or 4 stars?), but the review is positive, I'd say. Check it out here.

- Sujewa

Wormhole X-Treme intro

Made it to the 5th season of Stargate SG-1 (there are 10 seasons, catching up on them now on NetFlix), this season looks solid so far. Here is an intro to/ad for an episode that I have not seen yet, from Season 5, where the "real" Stargate people learn that there is a TV show about them called Wormhole X-Treme:

Humpday & G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I'll definitely have to go see G.I. Joe even though it may suck 'cause I used to collect G.I. Joes. Humpday, not so sure, but the clips look funny, & the interview with Mr. Duplas is entertaining - check it out:

Ease + Limitations + Pretty Interesting Images = Photo Blog Project!

new blog featuring photos of new york city taken on an iphone, check it out! several new photos should be added to the blog every week.

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photo "parking garage near penn station" copyright 2009 sujewa ekanayake

SoHo 7.15.09, 5 something PM

Watch out, I have a still camera again (have been without one for more than a month now, but the iPhone I got yesterday comes with one, takes pretty decent pics for a camera phone) so, no doubt a lot of new photos from NYC & elsewhere will be showing up at this blog again. This photo was taken around 5 PM, I think this was one of the first things I did with the phone after getting it from the Apple store on Prince St (photo was taken at a restaurant a couple of blocks away from the Apple store).

Shooting a music video on the iPhone

While picking up an iPhone today (needed it for work :) thought for a few seconds about buying the 3GS model (shoots video) but skipped it since I have a video camera, but, these folks in the video below have 3Gs's & are using them to shoot a music video, pretty neat, check it out (also look around YouTube for the finished product, nice looking video):

Building a DIY portable air conditioner

Too hot in your place to focus on your DIY movie making projects? Then take a break, go to Lifehacker, & figure out how to make your own portable air conditioner. Good luck.

Found on YouTube

Clip from an interesting movie:

Jem Cohen interview from a few years ago, from Rome

Cohen is going to be at IFC Center in NYC later today to show some stuff, more info. here. And now the interview, pretty neat:

New feature "Actually" is using Kickstarter to raise $s

Check out the Kickstarter page for Reid Gershbein's upcoming feature Actually.

Two films by Reid Gershbein coming to NYC for a screening in late August

Still working out the details, but the screening is on for late August, with Reid Gershbein (director of Here. My Explosion... & The Dabbler) in attendance with the movies. Should have all the info. by the end of this week.

In the meantime, go here to get more info. on the next round of 2 Week Films in October.

- Sujewa

Film and the Folk/Punk Connection - Movie Nights with Jem Cohen - starts 7/15 Wed at IFC Center

From an IFC e-mail:

"Movie Nights with Jem Cohen:

Film & the Folk/Punk Connection

Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 pm

Resolutely independent filmmaker Jem Cohen (Chain, Benjamin Smoke, Instrument) hosts Ian MacKaye (Evens, Fugazi, Minor Threat) and John Cohen (There Is No Eye) for an evening exploring folk, punk and filmmaking as forms of homemade expression, featuring screenings of John Cohen's 1963 music documentary That High Lonesome Sound; Jem Cohen's Nice Evening, Transmission Down, a portrait of Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous; a short film of Patti Smith's cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; never-before-seen outtakes from Jem's Fugazi film Instrument; and other surprises.

The series "Movie Nights with Jem Cohen" presents three nights of sneak previews, premieres and discussion with special guests including Guy Picciotto from Fugazi. The next two evenings in the program will occur in August and September.

Click here to purchase tickets online"

Report on newspapers experimenting with the internet in 1981

Well, now we know how this story played out over the next 28 years:

Your iPhone will not work in 1989, but this will

For the serious time traverler:

Just one more post about Transformers 2

This one is a video, get yer T-formers 2 geek on yo:

These cars transform into old racist stereotypes, their powers include the ability to ruin an otherwise alright robots & war movie

Brief interview with Transformers 2 screenwriters about Michael Bay's Jar-jar Binks moments (creating two Autobots to resemble characters that could have come out of blackface minstrel shows from racist entertainment from a few decades ago) on the robots & war movie part 2, at Film School Rejects.

Other than that weird distraction (Mudflap & Skids), pretty good robots & war movie - saw it today. I think they can also do without a lot of the regular humans interacting with other regular humans parts also - since the creators of the movie are just stringing stock & stereotypical situations together to give the non-military humans something important to do.

They should just make the Duhamel character the main human focus, let the storyline about the kids in love go.

Still remember the cartoons as being better - overall stories wise. But pretty cool to see how they turned the robots into live action characters.

But, aside from all the bad choices that show up in T-formers 2, I most likely will go see the 3rd movie :) - the robots look cool, the military tech porn - things getting blown up through coordinated assaults - is pretty entertaining as simple ( & false) escapism (specially since they don't show the massive & sickening damage & destruction that human bodies would sustain in real life if they got anywhere near the kind of explosive situations that are depicted in the movie).

More on The Mudflap & Skids Situation at Shadow & Act.

- Sujewa

Afro-Punk festival this weekend in Brooklyn!

Read all about it at Shadow & Act.

1989

At some point between 1989 - 1991 I discovered Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing. I think I first read an article about it in a Time magazine issue. At that time I was in high school in Maryland & wondering about what kind of work/career I should go after - a pursuit for life type of thing. I saw Right Thing on video - good movie, had some issues with it - but most importantly I realized that it was a movie made by a "regular" person - an outsider to Hollywood, a type of filmmaker called an independent filmmaker. Lee's success with Right Thing made me believe that it was possible for me to make movies. So, 20 years later, here I am, sitting not too far away from where Right Thing was shot - far from Maryland in exciting New York City, & having made 3 indie features & working on a fourth one, & writing in an indie film blog. It all began with me learning about Do The Right Thing (which lead to film school, discovering Jim Jarmusch movies, then digital video, etc.) & how it was made & the path that Spike Lee took to becoming a filmmaker. Happy 20 Do The Right Thing - thanks for a good movie & tons of inspiration.

Check out indieWIRE's article about Do The Right Thing's 20 year celebration.

Later on David Hudson

David Hudson's blog The Daily is shutting down. Hudson (of GreenCine Daily fame, made IFC his blogging home not too long ago) promises to return - with a new film blog venture (i think). Thanks for all the links David, see ya at your next site.

- Sujewa