from a fan...

Dear filmmaker Joey,

Your films are intense sensitive beautiful honest important

You are intense sensitive beautiful honest important

I will talk to you soon

Sent on the fly...

Shotlist/storyboards & thinktank session

Renee and ME- some diner on a hill- brainstorming the first official appearance of Jane Public on film.
How do we shoot it? What cameras? What format/s ? How do we interpret/marry french cinema via experimental means.
We tore up the paper menu, created artificial Framing Screens and went at it. First steps towards the bigger picture. More creative updates to soon...

Paris casting / GIRLSTORIES grand finale

Florence (performance artist/dancer/actress) has been officially added to complete the final touches of the GIRLSTORIES final conclusion. Cider, Brooklyn, wigs and war stories all fit in for the creative talk needed for the upcoming basement shoot...

Our "process" has been set into motion. Birds of a feather flock together.

me
xo

p.s. it's nobodys business but ours where these 2 persons (me and Her) met up for the private "talk". BUT (all privacy aside), drive over the Williamsburg Bridge at some point in time, catch a quick Left, keep on driving, and good luck. Look for bad live music, dingy decor and long dark features (me and Hers). Then go God Bless kindred spirits. Florence WILL BE Jane Public and introduce the Girlstories trilogy to France. Stay Tuned. BYE FOR NOW.

Kim Gordon introducing Girlstories

Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) introducing my new film trilogy GIRLSTORIES as a contemporary piece of social studies -in East Village, NYC
12/11/2010

GIRLSTORIES performance rehearsals

Actress Veronica in a tape rehearsal for, "GIRLSTORIES" film.
Film headed to Cannes 2011.

Friendship and film school

My loyal friends, after so many years.
God bless the power of art.

Dane Shitagi- photographer

Dane is Incredible photographer. He is currently working alongside some of my GIRLSTORIES production team. Here is a Link to his ballet photographic project:
http://www.daneshitagi.com/html_pages/projects_html/ballet_html/ballet_12.html

THE WOODMANS (film doc)

"The Woodmans" is a film about a family's wages of art--and the power of art to heal. It features the paintings and ceramics of George and Betty Woodman; the videos of their son Charlie; and the extraordinary photography of daughter Francesca Woodman. Original score composed by 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE TRAILER !!!...
http://www.thewoodmansmovie.com/

My new pal Ed Harris's interview at SIFF

CLICK ON THIS LINK:
http://www.syrfilmfest.com/

"DEADLINE" FORCES MY CREATIVE PROCESS

The deadline for CANNES FILM FESTIVAL is around the corner.

I am forced into a position of shooting the final GIRLSTORY person (hostess).

I am grabbing, tearing and scribbling things all over my world (see above, torn scribbled JANE/JOEY ideas).

I found my location for the shoot yesterday afternoon (a cold stone basement).

I found the "look" I want for the actress.

Next Comes, THE SHOOT !

I wish God would give us fast foward buttons. I really wanna hit a LIFE-FAST-FOWARD button and watch the thing before I shoot it.

bye.

x

p.s. I love my new $3 sunglasses too. Thankx for the inner compliment.

luv, me xo

more aggravating HOPE

So I forced myself to swallow the sad reality of modern technology. I forced myself to turn on the new camera and "explore" it's potentials, learn its abilities. I continue to grieve the demise of celluloid. I like being hands on in every part of the process of creativity-I don't like digital things telling my ideas what to do.
When in art school (film school) I literally slept in the editing room. Every assignment became a film when I was finished. I would get reprimanded for not following the rules, I would get in trouble for trying to do more than the simple "lighting" or "blocking" assignments. Ironically, the film school projects became the beginning of my reputation, of my voice.

This new camera, I now see, as a tool. The "perfect" glossy look sickens me. But, my approach may change. I will view the "information" that I capture with it as raw material to sculpt in the Post production stages.

Funny, as I spent hours viewing other people's work with this 60D camera model on YOUTUBE, I was reminded that anyone can have a "tool", but only few are artisans. That temporarily relieved me. Like the Super 8mm camera of the 70's (available then at Woolworths and local pharmacies), the technology out there in the world is open to the public. Again, only few will take advantage of this fact (take advantage of its potential to create things of relevance).

I have a lot to learn. I will keep playing for a few weeks. Unfortunately, I seem to be hastened to the cinematic poem. Despite knowing that I could get "rich and famous" with a long, conservative narrative, I am more in love with the small statements that I can make. I am a fine artist, not a filmmaker in the sense of the conventional idea I am not interested in making fun mass consumable fast food. I am interested in saying things directly disguised.

I have, and will use, programs to become my darkroom (per se). I will experiment with different mixings of print and paper stocks. I will experiment with various forms of "presentation". Basically, I will follow my instincts.

Weird to use this small machine that works under the leadership (dictatorship) of a BATTERY LIFE. I layed in my bed and simply took compositions/shots of my body parts. Of things on my walls. Of "moments".

I will spend the weekend picking up, and putting down this thing called the Canon 60D.
I will do my best to have a relationship with it. I will do my best to call it my new best friend.

me

Trial by Error.

so here i am tonight...FORCING myself how to learn this new filmmaking tool (it's how I must approach this thing, as a tool)...this hyped digital object which i have kept a good 10 feet away from since it arrived to my home by UPS. This CANON 60D.
i MUST learn this thing in order to make new films. the future has arrived...film stocks are extinct. i HATE how "preety" and "Glooossssy" it all looks.

but I am certain that in due time, i will taint it with my trademark style and STAMP.


me.xo

p.s. wish me luck my precious fans. I am very excited about one thing for certain, I am excited about using "pluralizing software" that will allow me to take incredible sound with my sound field recorder and synch it up to the moving images that I plan to capture with this haunting battery operated thing .
LINK TO TESTS WITH THIS CAMERA:
http://vimeo.com/channels/canon60d

Do people change?

Rose: People change.

Ida: I've never changed. It's like those sticks of rock. Bite one all the way down, you'll still read Brighton. That's human nature.

a day at the MET (it had been years)

it had been years since i had gone to the MET. today, i made up for that lost time.
i love portraits. i love oils. i am a filmmaker who approaches cinema as a "fine art".
i felt at home at the MET today. i felt completely surrounded by family.

me
xo

p.s. these are the images/works that caught my eye the most...this is where my eye shot to.

Anne-Maree Barry's film exhibition in IRELAND

Anne-Maree Barry's, "Rialto Twillers" gallery exhibition representing her new film work (Ireland)

Amy Goodman's new book public talk

LINK TO CLICK ON:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nNVsdSWMEI

So much in common (it's strange)

His humanist approach. His confirmed "laughter on the set". So much in common. He lives via his cinema, but he is missed by so many. We owe him the ultimate. We owe to him pure honesty in the art
LINK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-471783/Ingmar-Bergman-legendary-film-director-dead-89.html


"I was an introverted child. My family lived in a small town in the north of Sweden, and I was very lonely. I had an artistic bent, toward painting and music, and then I drifted into acting when I was still an adolescent. I played everything–music hall singers, comedy ingenues, a few of the classics on the stage. I did one thriller for an American television producer with Robert Mitchum–I think it was finally released in theatres. I can't remember most of them today. My real career began when I went to work for Ingmar."

– Ingrid Thulin (1964)

Jane's own little film review.

Q: Dear Jane, how would you describe the film, "FANNY AND ALEXANDER" ?

A: That film (F & Alexander) is very dense. It has a lot (and even a lot of humor). The film is really about "breaking free". Even the Bishop breaks free in his terrible burning anguish & death. He was also asking to die, in so many ways.
He wanted to be terminated, I feel. He knew that by severely punishing the childen, and also shaming the Jewish man, would bring definitive black karma his way.

The characters are all plagued by this quiet conservative ambience that dominates their lives, yet behind closed doors/red curtains (although the maids are always privvy), they have their fun and flings with one another, and indulge themselves in taboos beyond the imaginable. When doors are closed, they permit themselves to be human.

The mother screaming like a banshee, and pacing back and forth in the background while the children endured was so horrifying. I am glad you made me pay extra attention to that part, with all of its cultural meanings. She was completely lost in a trance of primal screaming.

The marriage of the bishop and his young bride captured the heart of the film. At first, this choice for marriage seemed perfect. Lovey. Responsible. Possible. Then, as their relationship becomes comfortable (I mean as HE becomes comfortable) the devastation of his need to dominate and restrict take course. He drained her without even meaning to. His behaviour toward her children was despicable, but it was not that behaviour that compelled her to take action and leave him. It was her realization that if she stayed there, she would end up just as inanimate as all of those puppets in the film. If she stayed inside of that world, she would be wooden.

* * * I especially liked some of Bergman's casting choices. Like the casting of Ismael (a woman Bergman cast as a male), that weird strange evil person, who basically ignites the horrors that everyone is keeping steadily within by a simple and isolated conversation with Alexander in a room.

In conclusion- The film summarized Bergman's lifelong crisis that he had with his priest father.
For others (us, the public audience), I feel the film explained just how dangerous keeping unexpressed intense family emotions can be. Especially if there is some kerosene hiding somewhere around the house.

KODACHROME R.I.P. : 1935-2010

My last 2 films (Nice People + Homewrecka) could not have been as visually beautiful without my use of Kodachrome.
The only lab left in the world (Kansas) that was developing the film stock for artists like myself has now declared its discontinuance. Its unfortunate demise. A very sad day for artists. The Kodachrome stock was known to have a "color" archival rate of over 100 years when stored inside a freezer :(
Link:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/30/132485438/photos-steve-mccurrys-last-roll-of-kodachrome

Link to another important article, citing the famous "Afghan Girl" photo captured on Kodachrome.
http://mashable.com/2010/12/30/say-goodbye-to-kodachrome/

Another sad passing today.

link has details...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101230/ap_on_en_ot/eu_france_obit_caro

The future of the avant-garde theatre ?

The future of experimental avant-garde cinema...click on link...
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-12-22/film/year-in-film-culture-high/

Kenneth Anger interview at ANN ARBOR FILM FEST

click on link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfySTA-ey4c

OPERATING LAMP "PROP" (given to me as a gift) and Location discovered (a stone basement)

i cannot wait to use this lamp for the host/shoot of GIRLSTORIES which will imitate the Warhol stage design and minimalism of his infamous bolex camera Screenshots.

i will use an old stone basement as the location. a giant film projection screen as a backdrop and a giant movie lamp as prop (and shaft lighting tool)

Excellent BLOG site for DSLR filmmakers

This person/guy sold me my Canon D60 HD camera, gave me his professional info (he's a photographer), and i have now been turned on to his incredible BLOG as a further learning tool for this kind of still-photography cinema i am now pursuing ...

http://hddslreader.com/

(i am) so proud of him

Bale went through a rough time (period) when he was recorded going ballistic on a film crew member during that horrific TERMINATOR film. Despite the mass criticism and temporary public humiliation of that day, Bale kept at his craft. He stayed low key, he kept a low profile, and sustained himself. He basically kept his cool. His latest film performance, as a crack addicted Irish neighborhood loser pushing his brother hard towards a successful boxing career will be an eye opener (no pun intended to DICKIE, his character in the movie). I "fought" my way through a blizzard to see this character performance, and left feeling so happy for Bale. Listen, bottom line is that Christian Bale knows for sure deep inside that he is a bonafide rage-filled manic depressive NUTJOB. But Bale has class, and persistence in his craft. He never gave up. And now, with the DICKIE performance that has critics raving, Bale has a second chance to scream even louder at those who temporarily F&*#))^ up his career. With or without crack, Christian Bale rules.

Period.

bye.
xo

"EVERYTHING INSIDE THE MALL IS CLOSED TODAY" selfie

so went vinyl record shopping for hardtofind movie soundtracks instead. 

and I hit the jackpot !  NIGHTHAWKS!!!!  YAY!!!!  bye(bought it)

MoMA 2010 New Photography show !

NEW Still Photography that uses a 16mm loop device. This completely Blew Me Away !
This made a lot of sense to me. so nice to see something that does not have a USB connection on its belly.

bye.
mexo

link to a surprise performance ...click here...
http://moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/12/28/a-walk-in-performance-at-moma-by-patti-smith-and-michael-stipe

My actress (HOMEWRECKA) Laura Killeen in new piece!!!

http://www.actorsactoring.com/

Quote of the "Jane" day ...

"For the greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest- but the myth- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." -

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Yale University

June 11, 1962

HOSTESS for GIRLSTORIES is now completed & cast. Veronica Charnley gets the part !

Actress/Musician/Poet Veronica Charnley gets the part after a cafe/cupcake meeting in SOHO, Village. She speaks broken French, and will educate the public to the issues/matters of my film trilogy . I am shooting on HIDEF and her part will blow people away (it will include a murderous feral cougar)

Stay Tuned.

CANNES, here we come !

p.s. and wait till you see what actually happens with the feral cougar ! ummm, this excitement is WHY I love making films !!! This final shoot will be utter Perfection, and the Ultimate climax for the Girlstories Trilogy .

P.S.S. Veronica is browsing though a book of 16mm portrait "screen shots" (60's Warhol). That is how we discussed the part, and it's shooting possibilities.