Project Updates

Three Women and a Possible Fire Next Door - Short Film - Festival Run

Three Women and a Possible Fire Next Door was recently selected for the West Sound Film Festival! West Sound has been a huge booster of my work from the very beginning so I’m always excited to be able to return to such a wonderful fest. They really care about their filmmakers and they always have great networking events. Their Saturday brunch event is always a fav for me in particular (whoever caters those Breakfast Burritos deserves a Michelin star imo). Excited to be going back this August!

Untitled Writers Retreat Movie - Writing

I’ve been getting notes back from a few friends on the second draft recently, which is always exciting. I also had a meeting the other night with a mentor who helped me work out some larger ideas about the project and provided a lot of insight into shaping the next draft. I’ll be percolating on this for a while, but I’m starting to get excited about this project again. Looking forward to tackling the next draft in the fall.

Untitled Coffee Shop Movie - Writing

I’ve started writing the first draft and I’m feeling good so far. While the Writers Retreat Movie is very much designed as a first film (limited actors/locations, etc.), this one is more of an ensemble piece. It’s been a lot of fun writing a bunch of different characters and playing them off each other. Far and away the most fun part of the early drafts phase is the process of discovery. I’m having a great time learning about these characters and this world as I’m digging into the project more.

Watching/Reading/Listening

Watching

The Studio - TV Show - AppleTV+

At it’s best, Seth Rogen’s Hollywood studio satire feels like a blood-boiling fever dream that is only spelled by an episode’s 30ish minute runtime. Whether you enjoy that feeling is up to you (I’m a little burned out on the handheld-and-jazz style but that’s me). Personally, I can’t get enough of Rogen and co.’s idiotic escapades. It’s the type of show that is extremely detailed by virtue of its' pedigree. Rogen has been around the business for most of his life and knows the exact right degree to parody a given person/place/experience. He knows the annoyance of making things as well as the genuine struggles a person in change of running a film studio faces.

Every episode has its charms (I described this show to my partner as “ten episodes of I heard about this one") but for my money, the sixth episode of the season best embodies what makes the show so good. The episode centers on Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick going to a fundraising gala with a Pediatric Oncologist he’s dating. Remick spends the majority of the episode alternately arguing and defending the importance of art and movies in a crowd of people who literally save lives every single day. It so fully captures the hilarity and total dissonance of working in the entertainment industry, where everything is mission critical, time is money, and everyone’s hair is on fire because the joke we spent a bajillion dollars on isn’t quite perfect in the edit yet. Also, Bryan Cranston’s performance in the finale is one of the single greatest comedy performances I’ve ever seen.

The Studio has already been renewed for a second season and I, for one, cannot wait to see where they take the show next

Reading

“Battle of the Cool Kids: Inside the A24, Neon and Mubi Turf War” - Article -  Mia Galuppo & Scott Roxborough

While it must be said that Mubi is funded by Genocidal Maniacs, from a pure filmmaking perspective, it’s been interesting to watch the development of A24, NEON, and Mubi as the premier distributors of independent film. I’ve spent a lot of this year thinking about the actual nuts and bolts of film Financing, Distribution, and Marketing. So this piece was right up my alley in the way it breaks down the business models of all three:

The full piece can be read here.

Listening

“The Old Man is Still Alive” - Podcast - You Must Remember This

I go in and out of listening to Karina Longworth’s (consistently excellent) forays into Hollywood history. As much as I am a sucker for deep dives into Tinseltown gossip and myth, I tend to struggle with podcasts that have long, overarching storylines just because I listen so infrequently. Which is part of why this new season has been so perfect for me.

Structured as a season of one-off episodes about Classic Directors in the the twilight of their careers, the season turns it’s immensely well-researched resources on the lesser known corners of some of our greatest filmmakers careers. Episodes on Frank Capra, John Ford, Fritz Lang, and more become bizarre, fascinating explorations of the psychology of these once-formidable men. Peter Bogdanovich features frequently as a sort of pseudo-guide, which also allows Longworth to revisit one of her crowning achievements, the Polly Platt series. It’s a run of episodes I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and another feather in the cap of one of our best podcasts currently running.

Got a question or comment? Shoot me an email at [email protected].