So after wrapping a shoot last night with Project 2050, I fell into a cab with equipment and furniture blankets. The driver was smoking a cigarette, so I asked if I could have one. He said “So, are you a bum or a filmmaker?” Chalk that up as a brand new question. Turns out the driver Abraham is an actor and knew that midnight blankets + ciggie request = one of the above. Love that.
This week Sony premieres the Sundance 2008 Grand Jury winner Frozen River. Our friend Kevin Pazmino was the 1st AD (as he was on PK’s Predator), so we’re gonna go see it. Give a shout if you wanna come with, we’re buying popcorn.
Also earlier this year IFC released Sangre de mi Sangre, the 2007 Grand Jury winner, produced by our friend Per Melita.
Both films tell a story of ‘illegal’ immigration and were made on shoestring budgets. And so we raise a glass to our friends and their fine fine work in the trenches of NYC indie filmmaking.
Word from Gothamist is that the new Top Chef contestants are living in my hood at the McCarren Park Condos. When asked what was filming, a crew member deadpanned “A mayonnaise commercial. Just a mayonnaise commercial.”
Mayonnaise and Cat Food are the two tried and true classics of film set crowd control. Tell the public that’s what you’re shooting, and they’ll keep on moving – the thinking is that nobody cares about these products. No prom king, sorry.
That said, while working on set I’ve had odd conversations with passerby about the virtues of condiments and cats. And even as a filmmaker, I am not immune from such chicanery. Last week I walked by a set and paused to ask what’s shooting – in my query using code to convey my insider status – it’s OK, you can tell me what’s really on camera.
But alas no pass for me, just a stonefaced response: “Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.” I smiled and pushed on.
(Bonus Points go to whichever upstart filmmakers create a meta-text that integrates Top Chef with their Carroll Gardens brethren Real World.)
Since seeing the Fiest/Sesame Street video, I’ve been moseying down a muppety memory lane. One of my faves were the Yip-Yips – cultural anthropologists from Mars, ever curious about our Earthling ways. Loved them, but often watched them whilst hiding behind the sofa, cause they scared me.
So after watching the above clip, I was reminded of a Gallup phone poll in June that had McCain and Obama in a dead heat. While it claims to source from both mobiles and landlines, I’ll wager that far fewer of the cell set partook.
As a teen I toyed with many surveys that called my parents’ landline, but have never once have had a chance in six years with my 917. And even if Gallup called my mobile, I probably wouldn’t answer their 800/private/unkown number. So while older folks do vote more than us whippersnappers, is it time for pollsters to reconsider what ‘pulse of a nation’ they truly take via telephone?
So the internets are abuzz with questions about the Saatchi/Epoch Bronze Lion winner “Speed Dressing” cause JC Penney is now denying ownership of the spot. For those not yet in the know, the :60 depicts two cute teens practicing speed dressing so that they can get away with some heavy petting (greatest sex-ed term evar, IMHO).
I was surprised when I saw it and didn’t think it was sanctioned; kinda like the below Levi’s :60. But I’m not wholly convinced that JC ‘knew nothing’ about it. Would Epoch and Saatchi really risk a F500 client relationship for Cannes? Dunno. Though I doubt JC will fire Saatchi. And Saatchi will work again with Epoch.
In the new media landscape, there are strategy briefs that make room to release and then deny content. And by denying it outright, JC can wash their hands in the public eye, yet get the benefit of viral buzz and grab that brass ring of cool amongst teen shoppers. Until this spot hit the web, the words ‘edgy’ and ‘JC Penney’ couldn’t be found in the same room. Now they’re necking in the basement.
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UPDATE
Of course Saatchi knew all about it. I mean, come on, awards shows are an incest fest, you think nobody told them that it was in the running?
…Well now Saatchi/Epoch is ‘returning’ the lion
Once upon a time, listening to music via headphones was considered a form of anti-social behavior, a way to shut out the world. So of course as a teenager, I reveled in the walls that I could create with my walkman. Yellow Sony Sports was my fave. As we moved to discman days, I rocked the chonky ear goggles. They signified hip-hop and served as a caul for my aloof attitude.
Now in the iPod era, headphones lost any stigma of standoffishness. We all share in the experience of using the same operating system, and paired with social media, it can be an act of social inclusion – witness the Silent Raves.
And so as part of the ongoing experiment that is my life, this past month I opted to go sans headphones/iPod, to see if it altered the way I interacted with the world. Eye contact picked up more, and I’ll admit to a spike in furtive eavesdropping, but no great epiphanies to speak of.
And then last Thursday morn I put my headphones back on – and my world went a tad bizzaro. My sense of smell perked up. Lose one sense, and others come to the fore. And since I couldn’t aurally understand the actions and intent of those in my peripheral, I became wary of other people. I did not truly think they sought to cause harm, but could not shake the feeling of being on guard. Human as we may be, I felt almost like an animal negotiating the city space, instinct being the trump card to reason.
