debor009

I'm drawing up my grocery list in preparation for a day of cooking turkey, but I just saw that Shawn Christensen's film Before I Disappear is opening this week and I had to say a few words. I saw his short film Curfew , which won more than 40 film festival awards before taking the Oscar for short film in 2012. It was very funny and clever and an example of what a writer can come up with if his take on life is prefaced with "What if....?" Before I Disappear is Curfew taken to feature length. Here's the gist: "At the lowest point in his life, Ritchie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year-old niece, Sophia, for a few hours." (The film actually opens with Ritchie in the bathtub cutting his wrists. I will say no more.) Christensen has added a few name actors to the feature, like Ron Perlman , but he still stars himself as Ritchie and has retained Fatima Ptacek as Sophie. I actually thought Ptacek was the weakest link...

I haven't watched a vampire film since Count Yorga, Vampire scared the bejeesus out of me as a kid by letting the vampire win. (What fun is that?) But what I've read about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night , written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour , has me intrigued. This sounds like a brilliant twist. More later when I actually get a chance to see it.  As I said, lots of good films out, and women filmmakers!

After starting off the year with the usual over-the-top CGI Superhero flicks designed to attract the easily amused, this has become a phenomenal year for small, funky, creative, inspiring films. My husband and I would rather eat popcorn in a movie theatre than dinner in a French restaurant, but over the summer there were weeks when we stayed home. Now there are so many choices! The 2014 Oscars are shaping up to be a real horserace, although if Michael Keaton doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar for Birdman I'd like to see the performance that does! (More on Birdman in a separate post below.) Check out Naomi Watts both in Birdman and St. Vincent , where she does a brilliant comic turn as a pregnant Russian prostitute. Has Filmdom discovered that a fine small film can turn a tidy profit with much less financial risk?

Arlan Godthaab, Vampire Hunter A Los Angeles actor friend, Arlan Godthaab , posted photos yesterday on Facebook from "I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker," a horror-comedy now shooting in snowy Wisconsin, with a cast that includes Jacob Givens , Derek Haugen , Noel Carroll , and Keely Gelineau. These were interesting shots that not only made me want to learn more about the film but also got me thinking about how actors and production companies use social media to publicize their product. His is one way, and it’s a good one. Yet most production companies, even the big ones, don’t yet get social media. Filmmakers trying to break into the business have enough on their plate just trying to figure out funding, casting, logistics, lighting, shooting, and editing. Marketing is rarely in the budget, so they don’t even think about it. They should. They have a whole team on set that can help get the word out about their production, but often the best most young filmmakers can d...

Acting is an ongoing education, not only in studying great actors in film and on stage but also in formal classes. We're always working on our craft. A little play I was in last month won its one-act competition, with nice comments from the judges about my performance. It was the first time on stage that I was free of stress about my lines and about performing in front of an audience. It was enjoyable....exhilarating. Now is the time to pump up my stage work with a class that pushes me back out of my comfort zone. I've been surveying local actors on which programs are likely to be the most challenging.  Here's what I'm hearing.... The Shakespeare Theatre Company : Accessible. Classes of 5-6 sessions. Great for the classics (and what actor doesn't need a firm foundation in the classics?). Learn at your own pace. Enunciate! Enunciate! The Studio Theatre Conservatory :  Demanding. Not for the faint-hearted, or the thin-skinned. A full 3-year program, which they encoura...

Up at 3 am. Camera ready and on the road by 4:30 to drive 81 miles to an early call and avoid much of rush hour. Astonishing how many cars are already on the road. Then a lonely breakfast in McDonald's, drinking coffee and watching the first gray threads of dawn break on the horizon. Worked from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., much of it in bitter cold and without a coat, then fought heavy traffic for 3 hours to get home. To get home dead tired. I've known dayplayers and background actors  to be on the road 8-9 hours round-trip to work a film or TV show, which often means being up more than 24 hours straight, unless they can catch a catnap back in holding. It's called dedication.

What a year for great movies! And what a feast for actors to watch and learn. Saw #Birdman with my husband yesterday. Wow. That…was…different. Wow. My husband (he's the literary one) pointed out that it draws on the School of Magic (or Magical) Realism that was popular in Latin American literature in the 1940s and 1950s. Think Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez .  Events occur as normal, then people begin to fly. Yes, it's that different. Birdman defines "tour de force" on so many levels, right down to the titles. I can't even imagine what it took to light those tracking shots. And Michael Keaton , Edward Norton , Naomi Watts (This after her turn in St. Vincent . Fabulous!) The Brits have dominated acting for decades. Now the Americans are showing them how it's done.

Actors draw inspiration from many sources, including the fine acting to be found in silent films and old radio shows.   I’m a huge, huge fan of the radio drama, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar , which aired from 1949 to 1962.   It's the story of an insurance investigator, but one that rivals any private detective from Sam Spade to Lew Archer. I was in Nevada and Arizona a couple of weeks ago and stopped by the Lake Mojave Resort near Bullhead City, Arizona, because it was the location for several YTJD episodes, including “The Mojave Red Matter” and “The Red Mystery.” Sixty years ago when it took 10 hours and $153.00 to fly non-stop from New York to Las Vegas, getting to the Lake Mojave Resort sounds like a trek to an exotic place.   Here’s an excerpt from “The Red Mystery” that mentions the resort: “…the awesome beauty of the clear night sky over the desert with its billions of stars twinkling in the black sky above is something I’ll never tire of.   The stars seem clos...