Bret Wood's Efforts and Exploits

Daily Film Fix

2011-05-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an interview recently shot by Jonathan Hickman for his web/cable series Daily Film Fix.

Apologies to the makers of the film Red Moon for having their dinner crashed.

Bruce Ricker, RIP

2011-05-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

I just found out today about the death of Bruce Ricker, who was a good friend, a trusted colleague, and a talented filmaker. He died on Friday, May 13 at the age of 68.

His first feature film, The Last of the Blue Devils was a documentary on the reunion of Kansas City jazz greats Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann and Count Basie. It won the attention of jazz aficionado Clint Eastwood, who became Bruce's patron in later years, facilitating the production and release of such films as Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends and Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me.

Bruce Ricker, Tony Bennett, Clint Eastwood. Photo by Adam Rose @ globerunnerphotography.com

Bruce's last film, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way was, in my opinion, his best. It not only presents an emotionally moving portrait of Brubeck, but captures some of the essence of jazz, even as it speaks intelligently about music theory and construction. Even though the film aired on TCM in December 2010, Warner Bros. has been sitting on the DVD release. Hopefully they will finally release it, because no filmmaker could hope for a more poignant epitaph.

I will miss his advice, his wry observations about the music/film scenes, and the use of his pad on Charlton Street when I was too poor to afford a hotel in New York.

Here's a link to a more detailed obit, which I wrote for TCM's "Movie Morlocks" blog site.

Strangers With Candy

2011-01-31T11:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a fascinating blog post by Australian writer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the topic of the 1962 child murders that inspired the film "The Child Molester." The crime (and film) are integral to the history of the Highway Safety Foundation (hence my involvement as a source).

The Child Molester (1964): The Highway Safety Foundation Beyond the Road (FILMBUNNIES)

Alexandra is fearless, hip and talented. It was a pleasure meeting her a couple of years ago, and I'm proud to contribute to her ground-breaking work. Her book "Rape-Revenge Film: A Critical Study" will be published soon. The full-length essay on "The Child Molester" should be published later this year.

FAUST rises again

2009-03-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Apologies for my bloglessness, but I've been making up for lost time on several Kino projects.

Just to show that I and my blog are still alive, I'm posting links to reviews of the new edition of F.W. Murnau's FAUST that I produced, which was released along with a box set of Murnau silents.

Next time I blog, I promise... insights, wit, etc. But for now.... shameless self-promotion.

DVD TOWN.COM

AUSTIN CHRONICLE

THE NEW YORK TIMES

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

THE NEW YORKER

DVD TALK

THE AUTEURS

HUFFINGTON POST

BOX OFFICE.COM

PARALLAX VIEW

THE DAILY PAGE

SEAN AXMAKER.COM

If you're into German silents at all, you owe it to yourself to check out the new FAUST, because the image quality is a huge improvement over what was previously released. And if you get the double-disc set, there is a phenomenal documentary on the making of the film that does multi-screen comparisons of the various takes from the film. Through this, one can track Murnau's creative process, see him experiment and change his mind, and gain profound understanding of the freedom he was allowed while making this film at Ufa. There's honestly nothing else of its kind out there. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Maybe I already posted it, but here's the trailer I cut for the release:

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER

IN MEMORIAM

2009-02-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Kelly Groucutt

Bret Gets Kinky

2009-02-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

As briefly alluded to in a recent Facebook status report, my short film The Other Half will have its world premiere on Wednesday, February 25 in New York. The screening is at 9:00 pm at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the CineKink Film Festival.

I'm proud to say, at this point, the film has a 100% festival acceptance rate! I'd better savor that feeling while I can.

If you're a New Yorker, you can purchase tickets (and peruse CineKink's other offerings) at the Official CineKink B-Side Website.

I was referred to them by Ray Privett, the brain behind the distribution collective Cinema Purgatorio. He pinpointed it as a cool, well-run festival with a loyal following, and a demographic that is... shall we say... not unsuited to my brand of filmmaking.

The festival is in its sixth year and, according to its mission statement: "Founded in 2003, CineKink is an organization that recognizes and encourages the positive depiction of sexuality and kink in film and television, most visibly through its annual film festival, CineKink NYC. Featuring a specially-selected program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality, with offerings drawn from both Hollywood and beyond, works presented by CineKink range from documentary to drama, camp comedy to hot porn, mildly spicy to quite explicit - and everything in between."

I only hope their audience doesn't find it too tame for their tastes.

I'm eager to check out CineKink -- still debating whether or not I'm going. Ordinarily I'd gladly put up the $150 -- but right now, every spare dollar goes in the filmmaking pot. If I'm really going to shoot a feature this summer, I gotta tighten the belt and make sacrifices.

I know... some cast and crew members might now be thinking, "I thought you told me this was NOT porn!" No, it's not porn, but you knew it wasn't the typical quirky Southern indie film the moment you pulled into that fleabag motel in Rome.

I've posted photos online, but realize I haven't shared the plotline, so here's the official story: "To evade the psychological cruelty of her disabled husband, a woman arranges a sexual tryst for him and a 'dancer' at a cheap motel."

EMBRACE THE ABJECT! Let's face it -- I don't make the same movies as everyone else -- and my work belongs in a festival that caters to, uh, unconventional tastes. I'm hoping that at CineKink, The Other Half will find an audience that appreciates its eclecticism.

The Other Half will be playing along with a feature film, MindFLESH.

Second Best Place to Live

2009-02-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

Much has been happening lately -- and I am way overdue in my bloggery -- so give me a few posts in which to catch up. In the near future, I plan to talk about

1) The World premiere of my short film THE OTHER HALF (2/25)
2) My plans to shoot a feature film this summer: THE LITTLE DEATH.

Later.

The point of today's post is just to call attention to an article in the Winter 2009 issue of MovieMaker Magazine: "Best Places to Live in 2009: The 25 best cities in the U.S. to ride it out as an independent moviemaker this year."

Surprisingly, they chose Atlanta as #2 on the list.

It's not online yet, but I'm sure the good folks over at MM won't mind me plugging the article with a sample, since I'm quoted therein:

No offense to my L.A. friends -- I just thought a little snarkiness would help get me in print -- and whaddya know -- it worked! My quote is a little more coherent in its entirety, but I have no complaint about how it appears in the magazine. Here's the whole enchilada, for posterity:

Atlanta is full of artists eager to climb the filmmaking ladder but -- because it's Atlanta, where there's very little studio/network production and virtually no investors -- there are few rungs to grab hold of. As a result, the indie film scene is more like a human pyramid, where aspiring writers/directors/actors pool their talents and trade favors in order to make the kind of films that gets festival play and stand a shot at distribution. It's not unusual to see accomplished directors working as d.p.'s, actors dishing crafties, and producers painting sets.

If you're too proud to hold a boom... move to L.A.

Worth the SACRIFICE

2009-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

When people ask me what I do for a living, I explain that I am a DVD producer. "What does that mean?" they ask. I go into a brief explanation of how films are prepared for DVD, from mastering the film to curating special features to designing the menus and packaging. Their eyes glaze over, and then they inevitably ask, "Yeah, but what do you do?"

At Atlanta's Plaza Theatre, on Tuesday 1/20/09, there will be a screening of Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice (1986), and it provides a good opportunity for me to elaborate a little on what it is I actually do. For those of you who don't really know me, or care about my day job, it might still interest you, because it raises certain issues of artistic ethics and how video technology can alter the way film is preserved.

In late 2008, Kino International put me in charge of producing a high-definition version of The Sacrifice. The Svensk Filminstitutet (Swedish Film Institute), which originally produced the film, provided us with an archival 35mm low-contrast print. Low-con prints are used when the negative is too precious or fragile to ship. It is low-contrast so that a superior image can be obtained during film transfer (you can master from a 35mm projection print, but generally the "blacks are crushed" -- that is, so dark that detail is lost).

So, Kino gets the print and I supervise the telecine transfer, in HD, with colorist D.C. Cardinalli of Crawford Communications. The print looks good but I realize that, when we compare the low-con 35mm print to the existing video master, there are significant differences between the two. The color in the print are subdued. A considerable part of the film is almost colorless, with a sepia overtone (just the slightest hints of color peek through). On the existing video master (from which were derived not only Kino's DVD but the DVD of a number of companies around the world), an effort appears to have been made to restore as much color as possible to these scenes (and lessen the sepia tint). Some scenes have no sepia tint, but are pure black-and-white. Even in the more naturalistic scenes, the sky is blue and the grass is green, while on the low-con print there is a more subtle range of colors.

It was possible for us to make the HD video master match the existing video master, in all its colorful glory. But should it?

After some correspondence with the Svensk Filminstitutet, I find an essay by d.p. Sven Nykvist, where he writes, "I remember, among other things, how well we worked together when we after the shooting was completed performed the, to the movie so significant, color reduction in the laboratory."

In a telecine suite, it is easy to radically alter the look of a film, and it is the job of the producer to work with the colorist to find the chromatic balance that suits the film and is accurate to the filmmakers' intentions. But -- in the case of The Sacrifice, where the director died in 1986 and the director of photography died in 2006 -- how do we know what their intentions were?

Fortunately, Kino has an original 35mm exhibition print from 1986. This means it was printed according to Tarkovsky's and Nykvist's lab specifications. Note: these printing instructions are kept with the negative for future lab printings; however, the settings do not translate to telecine coloration, so these printing instructions are useless to the video colorist, who has to start from scratch. So the projection print provides the key to the proper look of the film. And part of seeing the proper look is seeing it projected on the screen.

Enter Jonny Rej and the Plaza Theatre. No really, enter it. Tuesday. Because that's when we'll be screening The Sacrifice and seeing how it was intended to be seen (assuming the labwork in 1986 was pretty good and the colors haven't started "turning"). Afterwards, I will return to Crawford and make final adjustments to the picture before the film takes its next step toward BluRay authoring and preparation for digital download.

One reason I felt it worth explaining all this is that the new version I create is going to be much different than the Sacrifice people have come to recognize as Tarkovsky's film. I suspect there will be some who accuse me of tampering with Tarkovsky's film. Most likely, these will be people who never saw it in a theatre -- only on video. I just want the record to show that, on the contrary, I am restoring the film to its original look by removing a lot of the conventionlized color that it has always had on video -- and show that every effort has been made to verify the proper appearance of each scene of the film.

Not every DVD I produce entails this much research, or warrants this much explanation, but it isn't often that I have a chance to change the way we see a film made by one of cinema's great visual stylists. If I'm going to leave my mark on a film like that -- I want to make darn sure it's the right kind of mark.

And I do mean X-Mas

2008-12-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

I recently read a lame article in Moviemaker Magazine of someone's "10 Best Anti-Christmas Movies," and was shocked at how shallow and lame they were.... Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Come on, man, are you kidding? The earliest one was 1972, which is pretty typical of film scholarship in this day and age.

So I thought I'd wrap up the holiday season by posting some of my favorite grim cinematic takes on Christmas, and inviting you to respond with same.

The absolute best:

John Waters' Female Trouble. Watch what happens when Divine doesn't get the Cha Cha Heels she wanted.

Erich von Stroheim had a particular distaste for Christmas, as in Greed, when McTeague murders Trina in a kindergarten, surrounded by Christmas decorations (and the cops hang out across the street). Watch it here (unfortunately, the clip starts midway through the scene). EvS struck again in 1932, in one of my personal favorites, Walking Down Broadway (aka Hello Sister), in which a tragic scene is played out beneath Christmas decorations.

Tod Browning knew how to push the irony button. In his 1925 film The Unholy Three, a gang of dime museum criminals (the midget and the strong man) break into a house on Christmas Eve to rob the safe. A small child wakes up and comes downstairs. Seeing the strongman, then the midget, the child says, "Oh, Santa! You brought me a baby bruvver!" At which point the midget (Harry Earles as Tweedledee) strangles the child. When the child's father comes in to stop it, they kill him. Of course, the censors required that the scene be cut from the film, but pictures survive to show that it really happened.

In Browning's The Devil Doll, a criminal (Lionel Barrymore) shrinks people and uses telepathy to command them to carry out revenge on his enemies. One of the "dolls" is hung on a Christmas tree as an ornament and, in the middle of the night, climbs down off the tree to perform his duty as the clock strikes twelve. Unfortunately, the "doll" is discovered at the last second and gets stomped. The trailer is here, but it doesn't include that scene.

And who can forget William Powell taking pot shots at Christmas ornaments with a BB gun in The Thin Man?

Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas. But around this time of year, we need a dash of cold water in the face to wake us up and give us the energy to take down the decorations.

Just stop all this hooey about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Fourth Ain't Bad

2008-12-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

Pretty cool end-of-the-year news... the DVD I produced of F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh was given the #4 spot on Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best DVDs of 2008. This just after Sight and Sound included Houdini in their best of 2008 list. Not a bad Christmas present.

CHECK OUT THE ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY STORY

Thanks to everyone who worked on that disc. For any Murnau fans out there, Kino will shortly release a super-deluxe DVD of Faust with an incredible documentary about the making of the film, and a beautiful new restoration. We're also releasing two Murnau films previously unavailable: The Haunted Castle and Finances of the Grand Duke, both from 35mm restorations by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung.

Happy Holidays everyone, stay in touch.

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Then, as soon as I posted this, I realize that Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog, put Houdini on his Five Best DVDs of 2008 list.

READ ALL ABOUT IT.

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End-of-year update: The New York Times just put my GRIFFITH MASTERWORKS collection on their list of 10 Best DVDs of 2008

In terms of critical appreciation 2008 turned out to be a great year.

Pet Projects

2008-12-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

After a challenging couple of weeks, I'm starting to get motivated again. Part of the doldrums set in when I tried to objectively consider what it would take to make The Seventh Daughter on a small budget. I counted 65 different locations in the script -- 1920s era, several crowd scenes -- and quickly realized that even if I were an established director it would be pretty much impossible to get something like that off the ground. So it assumes the status of pet project.

But my spirits were somewhat lifted when I heard that one of my other pet projects -- the 3-DVD collection I produced for Kino, Houdini: The Movie Star -- had been named one of the best DVDs of 2008 by Sight and Sound Magazine. You may remember I posted on my blog the trailer I cut for the series (follow the Kino link and you can see it). Special homage is hereby paid to critic Michael Atkinson (one of the last few good critics standing) for making Houdini his solitary pick.

He writes: "Twentieth-century pop culture at its least pretentious, least schooled, and most pulpishly innocent, this DVD set encompasses almost all of the surviving footage from Harry Houdini's shortlived acting career (he quit in 1923, dissatisfied with movies' profitability), as something of a pioneer in the annals of athletic-celebrity-turned-matinee-hero. Houdini's infamous stunts are immortalised in cheesy fictional contexts, and though audiences from 1919 onwards went to Houdini's movies for the sheer spectacle of seeing Houdini be Houdini, they also got lost in a fantasy landscape where Houdini wasn't a magician but an invincible ubermensch fighting evil. Breathless, blissful odeon naivete."

Click here to read the whole article.

So you see... sometimes pet projects come to fruition after all! Oddly enough, filmic pet projects coming to fruition is the them of another script I've been finishing, Shangri-La. Taking this as some sort of sign, I've picked it up, dusted it off, and started working out some of its few remaining kinks. And... Lord help me... I'm starting to think, "you know... I could shoot this... maybe next Winter/Spring." Gluttons for punishment we low-budget film folk seem to be.

Sunday Morning

2008-11-27T09:54:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure what to expect, but I just heard that critic David Edelstein is going to discuss some of Kino's silent DVDs on CBS Sunday Morning, Nov. 30.

All I know is that the segment lasts three minutes, and will apparently show some of my boxcover designs. If they post the segment online, I'll update the blog.

Speaking of DVDs, I had a very productive trip to NY to discuss future Kino releases, and I think 2009 and 2010 look very promising. In addition to remastering and deluxifying some of our popular releases, we're going to be debuting some virtually unseen works from the U.S., Germany and France.

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R.I.P. Perry Keyt 1962-2008

D.W.G. in the N.Y.T.

2008-11-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

The D.W. Griffith DVD boxed set I produced just got a great review in The New York Times.

DVD REVIEW by Dave Kehr

But what I love even more is at the end of the review, where they basically say, "Oh... and by the way... Wall-E and Tropic Thunder were also released today." Nice.

Sometimes the Times de-activates these links to reviews after a day or two (to encourage subscription), so click fast.

Kino Cat

2008-11-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

Kino International has just released its 2009 DVD catalogue, and I'll gladly steer as much traffic to it as possible. The magazine-style interface (with film clips embadded) is really cool to browse, and I"m awed by the huge quantity, and enormous variety of high-quality films this relatively small company has been able to acquire.

Every day I do a little something to add to the heft and variety of the content. Tonight I'm remastering Tarkovsky's THE SACRIFICE in HD -- and also mastering screen test footage for Ernst Lubitsch's unproduced FAUST project, circa 1923. Right now I'm watching an interview with Wong Kar-Wai. Sometimes I really love my job and I guess today is one of those days.

This online catalogue will be periodically updated and new film clips added.

Go shop.

Finished With the War

2008-11-01T19:24:00.001-07:00

Upon the recommendation of my pal Wayne Barksdale, I recently read Robert Graves's memoir Goodbye to All That, recalling his experiences through World War I.

The most remarkable passage was a letter he quotes, from his friend Siegfried Sassoon to his superior officers of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Sassoon had been decorated for distinguished valour during fighting in France, but at a certain point realized that the cause for which he was fighting had been perverted. I can think of no more eloquent or relevant commentary upon the current, seemingly endless war in Iraq.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of agression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise.

THE GENERAL

2008-10-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

From the "day job" basket:

Kino has just released a deluxe DVD of Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL that I produced. We mastered the film in HD from a fine grain master struck from the original nitrate camera neg (you archival nuts will know what that means). I can safely say there is no better version of THE GENERAL in release. Its bonuses include three musical scores to choose from -- including Carl Davis's celebrated orchestral score, which has been unavailable in the US for more than a decade. Plus documentaries, etc. No, I'm not trying to sell anything, but passing on relevant information to those who share my interest in silent film.

Click on the image to view a trailer I cut together for the release:

Thomas Alva

2008-10-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

I Googled myself recently (WHAT OF IT?!) and discovered that an old interview with me has surfaced on Film Threat, in which I discuss the DVD boxed set I produced for Kino in 2005: Edison: The Invention of the Movies (which has a pretty cool website, by the way).

I'll copy-and-paste the introduction here, then you can CLICK HERE to read the interview itself.

The American motion picture industry began with Thomas Edison and his brigade of inventive technicians during the final years of the 19th century. Edison never directed films and was only occasionally involved in their production, but under his leadership a new entertainment took root and quickly blossomed - literally beyond his eventual control.
Kino on Video, in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Library of Congress, has assembled 140 films produced by Edison in a four-disc DVD set called Edison: The Invention of the Movies. Beginning with the blurry, ghostly figures of the Monkey-Shines camera tests of 1889 (made at his celebrated Black Maria Studio in New Jersey) through the short oddball films designed to be seen in the kinetoscope machines (a single-viewer contraption where a 50-foot film ran in a loop) through the 1918 theatrical feature The Unbeliever starring Erich von Stroheim, this remarkable collection spans the development of the nascent cinema from its crude experimental beginning to the dawn of the modern film industry.

Many of the films in Edison: The Invention of the Movies are being made available on DVD for the very first time, most notably the 1895 Dickson Experimental Sound Film, which marked the earliest known attempt at synchronized sound in movies (the soundtrack of this 14-second effort was restored from a damaged wax cylinder and perfectly matched to the rather odd imagery of a man playing a violin while two other men danced a fox trot). There are some familiar titles to be seen here, including The John C. Rice - May Irwin Kiss and the landmark Western The Great Train Robbery, as well as hitherto obscure gems such as glimpses of turn-of-the-century celebrities like sharpshooter Annie Oakley and bodybuilder Eugene Sandow.

Bret Wood, who produced Edison: The Invention of the Movies, spoke with Film Threat on the unique challenges of bringing the harvest of silent Edison films into a single DVD presentation.

CLICK HERE to read the interview.

Incidentally, my digital restoration of Monkeyshines is being screened this week in Italy at the 2008 Pordenone Silent Film Festival. I'll be here... holding down the fort.

Big Wheels

2008-09-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend a.d.'ing Tracy Martin's short film Wheels (from my script). Tracy was the producer of Psychopathia Sexualis, and this short was made as part of The Woman's Angle Film Project, which is designed to encourage and support women filmmakers.

It was a three-day (12-hour per) shoot and, remarkably, we finished ahead of schedule (though filthy and exhausted after shooting at a car impound lot).

LaLa Cochran in Wheels, photo by Terry Thomas

Someone pointed out that I'm on a wheelchair kick (because the male lead of The Other Half is in a wheelchair, but it's purely a coincidence.

Actually, the characters in Wheels come from a different script altogether, written by Anthony Montoya. Tracy decided not to shoot that version, but liked the characters and asked me to come up with an alternate version. In the original script, the main character (Bianca) was a woman whose marriage was crumbling because an accident had left her paralyzed. It was an effective metaphor for relationship entrapment, but Tracy wanted a more independent and active female protagonist.

When I inherited the script, I thought WWLCD? (What Would Lon Chaney Do?). A light went on, the script was writ, shot, and is now headed for post. Congrats to Tracy and crew, and a big salute to LaLa Cochran in the lead role.

So, no one knows it, but Wheels is an homage to Lon Chaney in Tod Browning's West of Zanzibar [1928] (and, by extension, Walter Huston in Kongo [1932]). Wish I had a decent picture of "Dead Legs" Flint from WoZ, but you'll have to make do with this:

If you've ever seen WoZ you know the "crawl." Here's me on the set, trying to demonstrate the "Chaney Crawl" (and not doing such a good job, as you can tell by everyone's confused stares):

I'll update when the film is done and ready to screen (circa February 2009).

Abandon All Hope

2008-09-10T18:55:00.001-07:00

No, I'm not talking about the Presidential election... I'm misquoting Dante.

It made a catchy title for a post regarding a film and arts collective that has recently honored me with a membership: Cinema Purgatorio.

The heart, soul and brains behind this operation belong to Ray Privett, the influential cineaste who used to program the Pioneer Theater in Manhattan, and has recently signed on to crank up the Queensbridge Theater (QBT) in Long Island City, while also working as a writer, distribution consultant, indie producer.... Apparently he doesn't need sleep.

Anyway, I just wanted to spread the good word, and encourage my people to delve into Purgatorio (where you can currently view the ultra-bizarre trailer for Christmas on Mars featuring the Flaming Lips. Explore the works of other filmmakers, theatremakers, writers. You're guaranteed to get a kick out of it.

Hand over heart. I hereby vow to remain active and creative (and preserve my off-kilter sensibility), so that my membership in Purgatorio will prove beneficial to the organization. Hereby sworn on the 10th day of September, anno domini 2008.

GRAPHIC SUBJECT MATTER

2008-09-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

Dear diary,

Against my better judgement, I'm opening up the public gate to my latest experiment, briefly discussed in the previous blog post.

I've lately been frustrated by the amount of time/resources it takes to shoot even a relatively simple film. It's largely my own fault -- having gotten obsessed with the look of the film, settings, costumes, light... but then why shouldn't I be? But it's gotten to the point that the high cost of filmmaking is keeping me from making films, even from picking up a camera.

THE WARD: PART 1: PICKUP

Tentatively titled THE WARD, this is my first effort at getting past that obstacle. Instead of mounting the herculean production, I'm storyboarding the film as I go -- sort of in graphic novel form -- just so I can see and feel the texture of the film. Also (as previously discussed) a workshop I conducted on directing reminded me of the degree to which storyboarding makes you contemplate every detail of a script... and visualize it down to the most minute detail. Why leave this to the day before the shoot? Why not apply the fine-tooth comb in the writing stage? Maybe it's putting the car in front of the proverbial horse, but what have I got to lose? It's just paper. And time.

Time. Boy it's taking me forever to sketch these out... and they STILL look like crap. Oh well... guess graphic novelist wasn't my calling. It's taken several days to do the first twenty strips... and that accounts for only 2 1/2 pages of screenplay. I'd hate to think how long it would take to actually shoot this sequence. The script is already 25 + pages... and already I'm wondering... do I really want to follow this through to completion?

So follow the above link to Part 1: PICKUP. I'll post a blog when another installment hits the web.

To you gender-politically-conscious critics... don't slam me for sexism. This is chapter one. What you think is going on -- isn't going on. Well, not exactly.

Speaking of clearing obstacles, I am working on another exercise/activity to get back in the filmmaking groove. It's too early to blow the trumpet, but I'll provide details once they start to firm up. Code name: Black Box. And it involves an actual camera, actors... hush up now.

Back in Gear

2008-09-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging with any regularity, but it's been a fairly busy and (fortunately) productive summer. Let's see... what was happening last time I spoke....?

Oh yeah. I finished cutting my short film, The Other Half. It's kind of stalled in post, awaiting the completion of color correction, sound design and score. To me, trudging through those last few stages of post are the hardest to stay motivated through.

As I may have mentioned, The Other Half was undertaken as an effort to recharge my creative batteries, and I'm relieved to say that, in that regard, it has been quite successful.

It inspired me to pick up a script I've been wrestling with for a couple of years, work out its major problems, and write the entire thing from scratch. Although it bears resemblances to some of my uncompleted scripts (specifically Eden, Alabama and The Cuckold), it is its own animal.

My goal was to write something that takes place more or less in the present (not a historical drama), has some degree of comedy, and could be shot on a minimal budget. It is all those things, though the year 1966 is as close as I can come to contemporary.

Is it any good? When you're writing something, it always seems brilliant, and then the next morning it makes you cringe to even look at it. So I've put it in a drawer for the time being... and I'm letting a couple of people read it... who knows. It's called Shangri-La, for now at least.

But then, as soon as I finished writing Shangri-La, I started working on yet another script. See? It's been a productive summer.

This one is tentatively called The Ward, and I'm about 30 pages deep. I'll provide more details later, but I decided to experiment a little with this script (since they're pouring out of me -- why not?). The idea hit me when -- last weekend -- I taught a workshop at the Atlanta Film Festival 365 (formerly Image Film & Video): Intro to Directing Part I. One of the exercises we did was storyboarding a couple of sequences, and it was fascinating to see how it makes you completely deconstruct your script and consider every little word and gesture. So what I'm doing is storyboarding this script as I write, and seeing if it shapes the story any differently than if I were writing it without graphic accompaniment. Then I thought, rather than just storyboard it, why not present it more as a graphic novel? The idea was thus born.

I'm now creating a website to host the storyboard/graphic novel, so any interested parties will be able to see a graphic representation of the whole script, as I write it. I'm not trying to be a graphic novelist, I'm not claiming to have mad ink skills (my people always look different from frame to frame, and the graphic style is like Jack Chick with a palsied hand, trying to imitate Will Eisner). It's just something I wanted to try. When the creative wheels spin, sometimes I let 'em jump off the tracks.

Oh yeah, and I wrote a short script called Wheels, that Tracy Martin is going to direct in the Fall.

Speaking of the Atlanta Film Festival (scroll up if you missed it)... the deadlines for the 2nd Annual A.F.F. Screenplay Competition is upon us. If you have a script, I urge you to submit it. It was a wonderful experience and I want someone cool to take advantage of it. I thought about entering Shangri-La but, for various reasons, decided against it.

Special thanks are due Wayne Barksdale for sharing with me the secret to removing writer's block. Without his advice, none of this would have happened... I'd still be sitting at the keyboard... staring into space... wondering when the ideas would come.

Hard Things About Writing...

2008-06-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few months back -- shortly after the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition workshop/retreat -- I was interviewed by Noralil Ryan Fores at Short End Magazine. I had just about forgotten about it when Noralil let me know it's now online. It's probably the lengthiest and most detailed interview I've ever conducted, focused mainly on my writing process, and my unproduced screenplay The Seventh Daughter.

Click here to read the interview.

I'm almost finished cutting my short film, The Other Half. Making that film has provided the burst of inspiration I hoped it would, and I've been spending every solitary moment I can steal working on a new manifestation of Eden, Alabama. This is the script I'm referring to when I talk about a more contemporary project that involves, "filmmaking as an expression of sexual desire."

This script has assumed a wide variety of forms, but I'm pretty sure I've finally settled on the one that it was meant to be. That being said, I hope to sometime revisit some of these other permutations and explore their screen potential. One foot... in front of the other....

Ted Manson, 1927-2008

2008-06-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

Ted Manson, who starred as the "Professor" in Psychopathia Sexualis died on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

Rest in Peace.

Gettin' Old

2008-05-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had the dubious pleasure of seeing an advance screening of Speed Racer. It wasn't horrible. My seven-year-old liked it. But the longer I watched it, the more depressed I got about the state of contemporary film, and the more outmoded I feel that I (and the type of film I love) have become.

As you can see, the whole movie takes place within a fabricated (green screen/CGI) reality. Everything is exaggerated to the comic-book max. Which is fine. I don't object to movies like that on principle -- but I generally don't enjoy them. But I was really disturbed by this one. I don't know if it was the fact that you can tell millions and millions of dollars were spent to make the movie (and many more to promote it). Or if it was the fact that everything in the movie was detached from reality. There wasn't a genuine tree or car or emotion in the whole movie. But shed no tears for Warner Bros. They'll recoup.

I watched Frankenheimer's Seconds again recently. Seeing something like that inspires and motivates, while watching something like Speed Racer (and the values it represents) is pure multi-million-dollar discouragement. I had to go to the gym at 10:30 at night to try and make myself feel better.

Producer Joel Silver just makes me want to vomit. Look at his FILMOGRAPHY. No kidding, I feel bile rising in my throat right now just looking at it. I had to scroll down to number 73 before I got to a film of his that I liked (Die Hard, and even it is a guilty pleasure). And I've never had any use for the Warshowski's (don't care if I spelled their name right either).

By coincidence, today I looked at a video clip someone forwarded to me: a rare piece of footage from a film Orson Welles was trying to finish at the time of his death: The Other Side of the Wind. In his later years, he couldn't raise the money necessary to post the film, but he was able to keep shooting. For decades, people have been trying to clear the rights to see it through to completion -- a difficult task since Welles had apparently sold more than 100% of the film in his desperation to raise cash. I'd seen several clips before, and it's a real shaggy dog kind of picture, but one in which Welles is taking a few final jabs at the movie industry, himself, and the idea of "directorial genius." It's painful to think about the indignities and setbacks a filmmaker like Welles had to suffer, especially after watching something like Speed Racer.

In this scene from The Other Side of the Wind, directors Paul Mazursky and Henry Jaglom improvise a rant about the state of filmmaking (circa 1971).

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CLIP ON YOUTUBE

Apparently, Peter Bogdanovich (who also appears in the film, and was one of Welles's unsuccessful champions during the '70s), has convinced Showtime to fund some sort of completed version of the picture.

It'll be great if Bogdanovich is able to uncan the footage at last. Welles enthusiasts acknowledge there is no way to edit the material into anything even remotely resembling what Welles's cut would've been, but Bogdanovich's heart is in the right place, and I'm sure he won't betray Welles's spirit.

So it's a pretty big deal to people like me, who closely followed Welles's career, and the many studio train wrecks he was involved in. But will anyone watch it? Will it matter anymore? Or is Welles now totally irrelevant (the reconstruction of his 1942 project It's All True was a box-office failure). Richard Linklater is now paying homage to Welles with a dramatization of his staging of Caesar, but I have much less confidence in someone like Linklater than an old hand like Bogdanovich.

Speaking of Bogdanovich (I know, this is free-association time, but it's making me feel better. Just give me five more minutes, doc). I was talking to some people about No Country for Old Men recently, about how most people agree that the final speech fails to deliver the dramatic punch that it was clearly intended to deliver. And it reminded me of Ben Johnson's soliloquy in Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, where the aging cowboy reminisces, and the clouds part and bathe his face in light. THAT'S what that scene should've been like, but clearly it wasn't. But hey, give the movie the Oscar anyway for effort.

I did a quick YouTube search and -- holy crap -- the scene is online. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself, but you should really see the whole movie.

VIEW CLIP.

Brilliant filmmaking -- and not a green screen to be found for miles. I think Bogdanovich intended it as an homage to Everett Sloane's great soliloquy in Welles's Citizen Kane.

Watching that scene from The Last Picture Show makes me feel better somehow -- it always feels good to watch genuinely wonderful filmmaking. The scary thing, though, is how much I'm starting to feel like Ben Johnson in that scene. Think maybe I need to start rehearsing a soliloquy of my own.

***** CODA: One Day Later *****

After further deliberation, I think I know why Speed Racer rubbed me the wrong way. There's a long scene (why are Hollywood blockbusters always so long that they border on tedious?), in which the evil corporate billionaire takes the young racer into the mega-factory to dazzle him with all the technology and resources he possesses (the old Satan tempting Christ scene, done much better in The Third Man, but I digress). The film's "message" is to resist the temptations of wealth, technology and power in order to stay true to yourself and maintain your integrity.

But the film grotesquely contradicts itself because it is the embodiment of an overblown, overfunded corporate endeavor that is overinvested in technology. So the movie is encouraging you to hiss the bad guy, when the movie itself is the bad guy.

The clouds part. A ray of sunshine hits Bret's face. A bundle of rocks slides off his shoulders and hits the ground.

I think I'll go do some writing now.

Felicia signs off

2008-04-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my wife Felicia Feaster is an art/film critic for Atlanta's alternative weekly, Creative Loafing. I should say was an art/film critic there. This week, after twenty years at CL, she filed her last review and is moving on to a senior writer position at The Atlantan, a glossy culture/fashion/lifestyle magazine.

I thought her goodbye note, printed in Creative Loafing was very poignant, and so I'm posting a link to it here:

Felicia Signs Off.

The First Part of the Half

2008-03-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post a cast-and-crew shot from the short film we shot earlier this week, tentatively titled THE OTHER HALF. We got some amazing footage, and I can't wait to finish shooting (no, we didn't get everything in the can as scheduled). I plan to post some anecdotes and observations in the next few days... but right now I'm reeling from sleep deprivation. However, I will throw in a couple of shots taken by Terry Thomas.

Click here for larger image with caption.

On location at Rome, Georgia's Pine Crest Motel (l-r): actor Adrian Roberts, d.p. Chris Tsambis, me, makeup artist Pamela Tripp.

Click here for larger image

All photos (c) 2008 Terry Thomas

The Half of It

2008-03-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

Apologies for being delinquent in my postings.

My main excuse is that I'm in pre-production on a short film. Since it's going to take forever to find investors for The Seventh Daughter (though I have taken some baby steps in good directions), I wanted to make a short film... just to keep limber, and to have a stronger sample of my directing skills. Because I am drawn toward period films, I thought it worth doing something more contemporary. It's currently called The Other Half, but the title changes daily.

I will post stills and maybe try and do some sort of production diary if energy permits. It's being shot in three days -- March 24-26 -- if anyone is interested in joining the team. The primary production roles are filled, but extra hands are always appreciated. It's slated to be a high-end HD shoot, with a strong cast and characteristically unconventional subject matter.

Plus on Tuesday (3/18) I'm shooting some unusual material to be used as a film-within-the-film... which should be fun.

So, drop me an e-mail if you want to participate. Otherwise, stay tuned and hopefully I'll post some interesting, insightful anecdotes -- or else use this as an outlet to vent my pain and frustration as things go wrong.

TEAROOM in Atlanta

2008-02-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

A while back I blogged about William Jones's Tearoom, which is a video art piece comprised of the Mansfield, Ohio police surveillance footage of gay sex in a public restroom in 1962. Tearoom will be featured in this year's Whitney Biennial.

But prior to that, it is being presented in Atlanta at Eyedrum, Friday 2/22 at 8:00 pm, with Jones in attendance.

Click here for info.

Having seen the footage, I can attest to the fact that it is a powerful and unsettling viewing experience. I have never watched it with an audience... in total silence... and I'm anxious to see how it plays in this context. This is not the kind of thing that will be released on DVD, and Jones only wants to screen it when he can be in attendance. So this is pretty much the only chance you'll have to see Tearoom, and I heartily encourage you to come out and see it with me.

Due to the explicit content of the film, it is recommended for adults only. The footage was used as evidence in court, resulting in one-year prison sentences for virtually everyone who appears on screen, so it is fairly explicit.

HOUDINI

2008-02-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

The three-DVD Houdini box set I've been producing for the past year is finally done.

It doesn't hit the streets until April 8, but here is a trailer I cut to help promote the package:

I curated the films, designed the packaging and menus, and wrote a detailed essay on Houdini's film career (which may be posted on Kino's website at a later date).

Standing up and speaking

2008-02-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

To the Atlanta contingent -- thought I'd mention that I'm going to be making a couple of personal appearances in the next few days, in case anyone wants to come out, meet and greet.

On Sunday Feb. 10, at 6:30 pm, I'm presenting a handful of short films at the monthly meeting of The Woman's Angle, the organization I helped form a year ago as a means of encouraging women filmmakers in the Atlanta area. Every month they have someone come in and present some films for discussion -- sort of fueling people's inspiration while they finish their scripts and get ready to shoot their shorts. I won't be showing anything of my own. Instead, I've chosen four of my favorite shorts from years gone by (1904, 1928, 1965 1995), to address the topic of mood and tone. From the TWA promotional machine:

"More Than Meets the Eye"
There should always be more to a film than what the viewer sees on screen. A film should cast a spell that lingers in the mind long after the screening has ended. Bret Wood presents a selection of short films that demonstrate how enigmatic visuals and unanswered narrative questions can deepen a film's sense of mystery and atmosphere.

Then on Tuesday, 2/12 the Dailies Project is having a screening of Psychopathia at Push Push Theater in Decatur. It may (or may not) be preceded by a screening of my rarely-seen Dailies short Smut.

From the Dailies publicity machine:

The Second Tuesday of every month, from 7:30pm - 10:30pm,
PushPush Theater and Dailies host Feature screenings.

These small intimate screenings allow filmmakers to discuss their work
and film enthusiasts to speak directly with the filmmakers.

Tuesday, February 12th at Push Push Theater

DAILIES presents a night with BRET WOOD and PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS

PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS was an attempt to make a feature film in the style and structure of a medical text. It presents case histories of various sexual dysfunctions in a cold and clinical style -- assuming the perspective of a Victorian scientist. But as the stories unfold, the case studies start feeling like characters, and begin to pry their way out of these scientifically arranged boxes. Upon its theatrical release, the film was often maligned for its eclectic structure and its refusal to titillate the viewer with conventionalized erotica. Since its DVD release, however, PSYCHOPATHIA has gained a loyal international following and been deemed "A triumph..."

"A sinuous interweaving of four case studies and other interludes, this remarkably mature and beautifully photographed debut asserts its own voice (familiar from Wood's documentaries), while balancing fresh cinematic techniques with silent influences and devices (such as iris shots), and Krafft-Ebing's clinical texts with much-needed warmth and empathy. Unlike the pastiche-like ways in which silent imagery is manifest in, for example, Guy Maddin's fine work, Wood's absorption of such techniques evinces a broader range of familiarity and more organic expression. He rarely gives us shots that 'quote' or recreate the great silent masters; instead, he and DP David Bruckner present images those masters might have shot, had they somehow assimilated the last 80 years of cinematography." (SIGHT AND SOUND, UK)

The making of PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS was a direct result of my involvement in Dailies. It was while working on my first short, NOT LOVE (produced for the Dailies project set in Piedmont Park), that I met Tracy Martin, who produced and acted in PSYCHOPATHIA. The spirit of cooperation and idealism that fueled so many Dailies projects was what gave me the confidence to undertake a feature project on such limited resources. The cast of the PSYCHOPATHIA is a veritable who's who of Dailies actors circa 2002. PSYCHOPATHIA could not have been made without the dedication and talent of so many members of the Atlanta film community, and I am grateful to Dailies for its high ideals and boundless enthusiasm. (BRET WOOD - www.psychopathia.com)

The Esper Legacy Continues

2008-02-04T13:49:00.000-08:00

Alright, I know that to most of my readers, this isn't going to mean a heckuva lot, but to some of us, it's pretty serious business.

I have an intense interest in a handful of historic film figures, the main one being exploitation filmmaker Dwain Esper. I few years ago I edited a volume of three of his screenplays and compiled as much historical information as could be gathered:

I also produced a DVD of two of his films for Kino:

When I interviewed his family members, they said Esper had produced low-budget Westerns with sound in the late 1920s. However, there was no indication in any historical index that Esper produced anything prior to 1932's The Seventh Commandment. Esper's daughter had a family scrapbook with photos of Esper with his sound truck on location, but she didn't know the name of any of the films.

Then, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Richard Harrison via MySpace. He somehow came into possession of a pressbook that settles the matter once and for all:

You won't find it on IMDB, or in the AFI Catalog of Films. But here it is -- proof positive. Esper's daughter, Millicent, used to talk about how Tom Mix would pick her up and let her sit in the saddle. I couldn't imagine Esper making a Tom Mix film... and Harrison's find also explains how this anecdote was true -- except for one minor detail.

Inside the pressbook is this bombastic pronouncement:

"Mutual congratulations are in order between the ART
MIX series of pictures and Dwain A. Esper. To the
first for securing Mr. Esper as a releasing medium
for their product and to the second for securing so good
a product to release."

To which Richard added, "I hold serious doubts about 'the second.'"

So there it is, folks, a piece of the 80-year-old puzzle has been found. Heartfelt thanks to Mr. Harrison for sharing the information with me.

While Waiting...

2008-01-31T17:49:00.000-08:00

Finished The Seventh Daughter a few weeks ago -- well, can't say "finished," why don't I say "completed a draft with which I am quite satisfied." It is now out there... being considered... by a few different people/places. The process slowly begins.

And I'm here.

Waiting.

As much as I complain about wanting some time to relax and do nothing, I'm just not wired that way. So I've put together a nice little script and plan to shoot a short film in March (circa 3/24-27 if you're interested in crewing). I miss directing so much, and I'm yearning to get back on the set again.

And I'm sticking to my vow not to enter any more of these #-hour film challenges. Don't get me wrong -- I like them, and they helped me put some really interesting stuff on my reel -- but anything shot under those conditions is inevitably compromised. How good can something be if it was written in a few hours, shot in a day, edited and mixed in a day? I think we put together some really good ones in the past, but I want something that isn't hobbled. Instead of cramming everything into one day, I want to spread it out to four days, and allow myself lots of time to finesse the direction. Have the time to properly post it.

If The Seventh Daughter manages to find a backer, I'm going to have to prove my directorial skills to insure that I'm permitted to wear that hat. And that's another reason I'm shooting this new project, tentatively titled Half.

It's in no way related to The Seventh Daughter. I want to show that I can do something more contemporary. It's as dark and twisted as anything in Psychopathia, but hopefully it has a more rich emotional texture. I'd better shut up before I jinx it.

In the next week or so I'll be sending out a couple of announcements. I'm presenting a collection of short films (nothing of my own) at the 2/10 meeting of The Woman's Angle, and introducing a screening of Psychopathia at a 2/12 Dailies meeting. Details to follow.

Ten Bestests

2008-01-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

For those who know me because of my DVD work, I just want to give a shout-out to Kino. Several DVDs I worked on this year have made critics' lists for the best of the year:

NOSFERATU made The New York Times's list:
CLICK TO READ

Time Magazine ranked POTEMKIN number five on their list:
CLICK TO READ

There were others, too, but these were the biggies.

Thanks to Kino International for giving me the opportunity to work on these films. As producer, my input included boxcover design, replacing the original-language intertitles with graphically-similar English-language intertitles (they were released as dual-disc editions, so people could see the original-language titles), and all the menu design. In the case of Nosferatu, I supervised the creation of an English language audio track to the documentary, and curated other bonus material. Other people deserve more of the credit: Donald Krim for selecting the films, Brian Shirey for supervising all production, Vince Evans for design supervision, Rob Sweeney for QCing, Ron Heidt for editing, Jason Hodges for translation, Doug Powell and Richard Rivera for DVD authoring.

Earle J. Deems R.I.P.

2008-01-14T06:15:00.001-08:00

Just found out from Skip Elsheimer (A.V. Geeks) that Earle J. Deems died last week.

Earle is one of the last instrumental members of the Highway Safety Foundation, and Highway Safety Films, which made the "Death on the Highway" classroom films which were the focus of my documentary Hell's Highway.

Here's a link to his obituary.

Earle's late wife Dottie was also one of the original members of the Highway Safety Foundation, and she was the sister of Phyllis Vaughn (one of its founders). After Highway Safety Foundation founder Richard Wayman left the organization, Earle took over control of the film library and continued making films, sometimes under the banner of Edcom Films. Earle complained that some people thought Edcom meant "Earle Deems Company," when it is actually an abbreviation for Educational and Commercial.

Earle (right) with HSF founder Richard Wayman.

When I approached him to discuss the highway safety films phenomenon, Earle was very cautious and a little skeptical, because the films were a source of some controversy, as was the foundation itself. But over time, I earned his trust and gained his support for the documentary project (he allowed me to use footage from the various films, and provided access to photos, documents, etc.).

Here's an interview I conducted with Earle very early in the project:

Interview with Earle Deems

Earle called me on the phone last summer to tell me that his health was declining... to basically say goodbye. But he hung in there. I occasionally sent him a small royalty check, and I was always a little relieved when the check would come back with his endorsement (in his characteristically shakey hand -- having developed essential tremens after his experiences fighting in the Pacific during WWII).

Earle Deems (sitting) with (l-r) Bret Wood, producer Tommy Gibbons, d.p. Steve Anderson.

When I met him, Earle drove a white Cadillac with the license number DEEMS. One of my fondest memories was having an evening out with him and HSF photographer John Domer, at the Skyway East in Mansfield, Oh (along with my collaborators Tommy Gibbons and Steve Anderson). The Skyway is Mansfield's most swank restaurant, and the maitre d' gave everyone a pack of matches embossed "Earle Deems" when we left the restaurant.

I still have the matches.

Earle Deems on the set of The Third Killer (1966).

Earle was always proud of his accomplishments with Highway Safety Films, but it seems like the organization never got the respect it deserved. Yes, there is some question as to whether it was the most effective and humane way of educating teenagers, but I'm also talking about the historical importance of the films they made. He donated most of the film elements to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and several years ago I tried to get access to the negatives in order to strike new 16mm prints. Much to my dismay, the people at the OHSP had very little knowledge of the location and format of the elements (even though Earle had a very detailed inventory).

The films have not been properly preserved and, as far as the history of the "death on the highway" movement, the book comes one step closer to being closed, now that its lone guardian has died.

Earle J. Deems
1919 - 2008

"Orlacs Hande"

2008-01-10T12:51:00.001-08:00

Recently I finished producing a DVD of Robert Wiene's Orlac's Hande, or The Hands of Orlac starring Conrad Veidt (the same director/actor team that made The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). We commissioned a score from Paul Mercer that complements the film beautifully.

As the basis of the DVD, we used a 35mm restoration by the Deutsches Filminstitut. Then we discovered that a 16mm print held by the Rohauer Collection (Douris UK Ltd.) had footage not included in the DF restoration. So we were able to add a couple of minutes to the total running time.

Silent films post 1923 were usually shot with two cameras, so that the studio could create two finished negatives -- one for domestic distribution and one for international. The Rohauer print and the DF print were struck from different negatives, so you can see the identical action from a slightly different angle. In some cases, they used different takes, so the action is different, allowing for interesting variations in the tone of performance. There are also some differences in framing and cutting, so you get some really cool insights into the filmmaking process (and the performance style of the always-brilliant Conrad Veidt). There's a section of the DVD where we offer a lengthy side-by-side comparison of the two versions.

Alright, I know this is starting to sound kind of geeky but I'm into this kind of thing okay?

To help sell Orlac to the masses, I cut a trailer for online promotion.

Youtube:
The Hands of Orlac

Google Video
The Hands of Orlac

HAXAN

2008-01-02T12:43:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd post a link to something I recently wrote, about a film to which I am particularly attracted: Benjamin Christensen's Haxan

As some of you know, I occasionally contribute essays to TCM, and this appears on their TCM Underground website. The film synthesizes well with a number of topics I've been exploring, as I finally put the screenplay of The Seventh Daughter to bed (but hopefully not to rest).

I should've posted this early enough that people could actually watch Haxan on TCM after reading this, but the holidays were hectic, and I was a negligent blogger. I guess you'll just have to Netflix it.

I hope to get some cool projects in motion in 2008. But, as a firm believer in the jinx, I refuse to discuss them until they are all but guaranteed to occur.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Own It!

2007-12-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

Look, I try to do more than just peddle my wares and self-promote on here, but come on, sometimes there are new developments and you gotta get the word out.

Case in point: Kino recently launched its new distribution arm: Kino on Demand. You can now download sixteen different feature films and watch them from the privacy of your own PC (sorry, we Mac people will have to wait a little longer).

Click to be transported

They chose a broad sampling of films to be part of the K.O.D. launch, and I'm proud that Psychopathia was among them.

You want deeper insight? Okay... let me think....

I read this yesterday and thought it was very fascinating. The kind of thing we need to remind ourselves from time to time. It was written by Aldous Huxley in the book The Devils of Loudun. He's talking about how people can be swayed by a charismatic and persuasive public speaker... and how dangerous that can be:

"Spoken by a good actor -- and every great preacher, every successful advocate and politician is, among other things, a consummate actor -- words can exercise an almost magical power over their hearers. Because of the essential irrationality of this power, even the best-intentioned of public speakers probably do more harm than good. When an orator, by the mere magic of words and a golden voice, persuades his audience of the rightness of a bad cause, we are very properly shocked. We ought to feel the same dismay whenever we find the same irrelevant tricks being used to persuade people of the rightness of a good cause. The belief engendered may be desirable, but the grounds for it are intrinsically wrong, and those who use the devices of oratory for instilling even right beliefs are guilty of pandering to the least creditable elements in human nature. By exercising their disastrous gift of the gab, they deepen the quasi-hypnotic trance in which most human beings live and from which it is the aim and purpose of all true philosophy, all genuinely spiritual religion to deliver them. Moreover, there cannot be effective oratory without oversimplification. But you cannot oversimplify without distorting the facts. Even when he is doing his best to tell the truth, the successful orator is ipso facto a liar."

I agree. Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore are liars. Do the ends justify the means?

Words to haunt us during the seemingly endless pre-election season. It is a foregone conclusion that we are going to elect someone on the basis of their charisma and ability to play the political game. So... a guy like Dennis Kucinich is gonna get trampled because he of the way his ears look. Very disheartening.

You wanted deeper thoughts. There.

P.S. Don't forget to go download Psychopathia.

Retreat! (Part Two)

2007-11-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

At the conclusion of the afternoon session, the participants were allowed about three hours of free time. Some chose sleep. I chose to stop obsessing about my script by seeing someone else's movie, so Doug and I caught the 4:50 showing of Into Thin Air.

Saturday evening at 8:00 pm, a public reading of excerpts of the six winning scripts was held at the 14th Street Playhouse. The scripts were ready by a panel of actors, most of whom were recruited from an IMAGE acting workshop.

Photo by Charles Judson

Staged readings can be pretty rough on a screenwriter -- especially if the screenwriter is a control freak like myself. But the cast did an excellent job of flitting between horror, comedy, drama and various points in between -- with no rehearsal with the writers (though I'm told at least one managed to grab some prep time with the readers).

Photo by Charles Judson

In hindsight I should've chosen a better scene from my script (I picked a montage sequence that's largely a monologue). CHalk up one more lesson learned. This was yet another thing I discussed with Joy and other participants: how to choose a scene for an out-of-context scene (Don't worry about conveying the crux of the story, just pick a scene that has some inter-character energy). Will the learning ever stop?

No. But it was put on hold at 10:00 pm. At this point a few people peeled off to the hotel while most of the crew headed to Ponce for late-night pizza fellowship, and then a visit to the legendary Clermont Lounge.

Sorry, no photos -- yet. Apparently Yarrow Wayman (whose script Molewhackers was among the winners) managed to squeeze off a photos, with flash, on the Clermont dance floor without having her camera confiscated or her person ejected. In this photo you will no doubt see a group of aspiring writers and accomplished mentors sacrificing their dignity on a crowded dance floor in the name of camaraderie. Afterward, it was officially called a night.

SUNDAY.

The participants were marching a little more slowly as they made the treacherous crossing of Peachtree Road to the Mitchell House (not far from the very spot where the grand dame of southern literature met her untimely end on the grille of a taxicab).

To begin the final day's festivities, each of the mentors told about themselves and offered anecdotal advice about the business of selling scripts to studios, and preparing projects for independent investment. They discussed the twin-edged blade of pigeonholing (specializing in a single genre helps you create an identity and get repeat jobs, but it is nearly impossible to break out of a mold once you've carved a space inside one).

Turns out one of the winners, Jennifer Deaton (Pentimenti) is a script reader for several companies, so she was able to talk about what kinds of scripts stand the best chance of getting past the sentries. Mentor Michael Lucker (Wes Craven's Vampire in Brooklyn) shared some of his methods of establishing "heat" around a spec script. Traci Carroll talked about the process of straight-to-video development deals at Warner Home Video... and what it was like to be the resident Scooby Doo expert. Kent Osborne discussed life after Spongebob and the politics of mumblecore. Producer Molly Mayeux warned of the dangers of overextending yourself, among other pitfalls of independent film.

Day three: Joy Kecken and Bret Wood, running out of steam.

The conversation went on so long we had to abbreviate the repeat visits with our designated mentors. We had just enough time to confer about the staged readings and be sure that the previous day's avalanche of information had begun to be absorbed.

And then, after a group photo on the front lawn, the airport departures commenced.

Prostrate: IMAGE Communications Director Charles Judson. Kneeling (l-r): IMAGE Executive Director Gabe Wardell, winner Jennifer Deaton (Pentimenti), mentor Kent Osborne, mentor Doug Sadler, IMAGE Festival Director Dan Krovich. Standing (l-r): mentor Joy Lusco Kecken, mentor Michael Lucker, winner Caitlin McCarthy (Vera), winner Steven Brooks (Apparition), winner Yarrow Wayman (Molewhackers), mentor Traci Carroll, mentor Molly Mayeux, winner Avi Weider (Zeroes and Ones), IMAGE Managing Director Paula Martinez, me.

Retreat! (Part One)

2007-11-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

So what exactly is the "prize package" that comes with winning the first annual Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition? Now that the weekend is over, and the prize has been claimed, I thought it worth sharing a little about my experience. Several people in the local film community, as well as the Withoutabox film community, were a little shy to submit to the competition, because there was no cash award, and the promise of "workshop retreat with industry professionals" was kind of an unknown quantity.

So I'll provide a brief narrative. Let me say up front that it's the single most productive and educational experience I've ever had, in terms of developing a screenplay and plotting a film career.

The festivities got underway Friday evening with a cozy reception at the Wyndham Hotel in Midtown. It was a casual meet'n'greet with a lot of table-hopping.

Saturday morning at the crack of nine, we marched from the hotel to the Margaret Mitchell House / Center for Southern Literature for breakfast and ice-breaking. It was at first a little tough to remember who's who, there being six writers and six mentors, most of whom had never met before. But IMAGE Managing Director Paula Martinez opened up a can of Americorps-inspired communications exercises and the ice was summarily broken. Due to a confidence agreement I signed upon entry, I cannot reveal the details of some of these exercises, but suffice it to say, secrets and lies were shared and an atmosphere of lively discussion was established.

From there, each writer had a lengthy one-on-one meeting with a mentor. When I'd done something like this before, the mentor shared general advice about the industry and offered a couple of good pointers. But in this case, the depth of discussion was far greater, and the advice given was tuned specifically to my script and my situation as a filmmaker. I met with Joy Kecken, whom a prior Google search revealed to be a filmmaker whose credits include writing and/or directing episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire and Standoff.

Joy Kecken and myself, talking shop in Margaret's house.

She was very enthusiastic about my script, and offered very detailed recommendations of what my next steps should be, in terms of getting that boulder started on its way back up the hill. After discussing the process of writing and rewriting, and the amount of self-advocacy it takes to get a film in production (for even the most established filmmakers), I realized I had been hiding in my office, endlessly refining The Seventh Daughter because I'm so dreading the process of getting that rock rolling. But Joy's genuine affection for the script has definitely lit a fire under my chair (in fact, I really need to keep this brief because I have work to do).

Beyond the bracing pep-talk, Joy offered very detailed notes and suggestions about my screenplay. I've had scripts read by people before, but have never had someone analyze my work to this degree. It was clear that she had read it carefully, contemplated it in great detail, and our discussion was almost like one side of my brain talking to the other side, if that makes any sense. I've been working on this thing for so long, obsessing over its details, that I've lost all perspective and really forgotten exactly how the currents of plot and theme flow. Talking to Joy brought the script back into focus in my mind and allowed me to get a fresh view of its strengths, as well as its flaws.

12:00 - 1:00 lunch

After lunch, I spent the afternoon working with Doug Sadler, a Sundance workshops alumnus whose 2005 film Swimmers won the New American Cinema Award at the Seattle Film Festival.

Doug Sadler lays it out for Bret on the Mitchell balcony.

The conference, which took place on a porch at the Mitchell House, began with a dose of tough love. Doug had clearly read the script with as much attention to detail as Joy had, and began to ask some questions about the plot that I didn't really have answers for -- much to my embarrassment. A sketch in my notes shows me in a hangman's noose, with x'es for eyes. But the longer we talked, the more I realized what he was getting at. I had chosen to leave some details vague in the script -- which was fine. But he cleverly showed me that it's fine to be vague with the audience, but I can't afford to be vague with myself. As he put it, "The middle road is going to kill you." These words are now printed and pasted to the front of my computer. By MY not knowing how some of the dots connect within the story, I was missing out on opportunities to strengthen character, intensify the suspense and make the climax more meaningful.

The funny thing was, Doug's guidance led me to the same place as Joy's, but each had taken a different path to get there. In the end, I felt I had been instilled with a) the motivation to start pushing the script, b) a yearning to get back to my computer and start writing again, and c) the tools and insights I needed to take a good script and make it bullet-proof. That's always been my ambition -- but I've never known exactly how to do it.

You can read all the screenwriting books in the world. I've read my share. But they only give you some theoretical advice. The thing that money can't buy is the advice of someone (with real-world film experience) who has read your screenplay with intense interest, making notes about how to improve it, and who delivers those notes to you face-to-face and is willing to go through the script scene by scene and answer questions and talk about how these ideas could be integrated.

That's something you can't get in a book, you can't get through some online service writing "coverage" for a script, and generally can't get from letting friends, family or competitors critique your script (there are usually so many social issues involved, that you never get totally honest feedback -- and in some cases even the writer doesn't really want totally honest feedback).

So if I'd been given the choice between a $5,000 cash prize and the weekend mentorship, I can absolutely say I'd prefer the mentorship. Because a cash prize, unless we're talking about something in the six-figure range, isn't going to help me get my film made.

More on the retreat later.

Reading a Script or Two... or Six

2007-11-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

If you're in Atlanta this weekend, I encourage you to go to the 14th Street Playhouse on Saturday evening 11/10, 8:00 pm, to attend the staged reading of the winning scripts of the first annual Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Admission is free.

No, they won't be reading six scripts... but approximately ten pages from each script (including my screenplay for The Seventh Daughter), presumably with some Q&A time with the writers.

The Screenwriting Retreat begins Friday, and runs through Sunday, and I hope to blog some of the details -- either during the retreat or after the fact, energy permitting.

Beauty in Darkness

2007-11-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Just found out that Peter Tupper reviewed Psychopathia on his blog Beauty in Darkness. Peter is writing a book on the history of BDSM and was interested in viewing the film for any insights it might have into Krafft-Ebing, and the varied worlds of S&M and B&D.

CLICK HERE to read the review. It is always gratifying to read the comments of someone who has taken the time to consider the film on a level more serious than "Was it hot or was it not?" The review concludes:

"Wood's film is not a standard movie. It isn't a documentary with narrative elements, like Writer of O, nor is it a narrative film based on true events, or a narrative film in the usual sense. It's perhaps a kind of fable, Grimm's fairytales or Struwwelpeter for the dawn of the twentieth century and the age of science. Like pre-Disney fables and fairy tales, they have their own eerie dream logic. It's hard to compare Psychopathia Sexualis to anything else I've seen, but on its own terms it's worth seeing if you have any interest in this subject."

The Tearoom

2007-10-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most unusual cinematic finds in my lifetime was during the making of Hell's Highway. For those who haven't seen the film, my quest for information on the people who made the notorious driver's ed films of the 1960s led me to investigate rumors about the Highway Safety Foundation's side projects.

At the core of one of these rumors was an investigation into homosexual activity in a public restroom in downtown Mansfield, Ohio in 1962. In order to obtain ironclad evidence, the Mansfield P.D. borrowed some of the 16mm equipment of the H.S.F. and filmed the bathroom sex through a one-way mirror.

To make a long story short, I located the actual 16mm footage. Much of it was warped and disintegrating, but almost an hour's worth was in good enough shape to transfer to video. Everyone who sees it is speechless, because it represents an uncensored actual window into anonymous sex in a small town bathroom in 1962. What's truly amazing is that you see men from all walks of life, from different races and economic groups, all ages, freely interacting in the (literally) underground restroom.

And, in this context, what does "gay" looks like? White collar husbands. Blue collar laborers. Hardly the stereotype that the world had in the 1960s. I think everyone involved in the investigation was stunned that so many "respectable, upstanding" men were caught, arrested, and sentenced to prison.

Ohio-born artist William E. Jones has created a series of fascinating works (in photography and video) exploring mass cultural perceptions of homosexuality. His 1991 film Massillon is a haunting diary of alienation in small town America. This weekend, William is debuting Tearoom at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Tearoom is comprised of the Mansfield footage, recontextualized as video art. The beauty of William's work is that he doesn't try to dazzle you with his own wit or craftsmanship. He has an impeccable eye for detail, and a gift for understatement. His films and photographs are as much about what you're not seeing, as what you're seeing. They're often made more poignant by what is missing, and engage you on a far more profound level that a more overbearing brand of art or cinema.

I own one of William's photographs, and you can look at it and get an idea of what I find so interesting in it.

I think William's Tearoom is the best way in which to view the notorious bathroom footage... because it makes you take it seriously and watch it silently and ponder the lives of the men who went underground for sexual release, and the consequences it had upon their lives.

So if anyone within eyeshot is in the San Francisco area, I encourage you to go to the YBCA this weekend. William himself will be present for a talk on Friday at 8:30, which I wish I could attend.

If you're on the east coast, stay tuned. I'm pretty sure the work is going to be shown at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh -- possibly in an expanded format that includes additional films/videos.

I wish William all the best with Tearoom and hope he finds the support and critical attention he deserves.

Incidentally, the original 16mm print of the bathroom footage was donated to the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

The Famous Unknown

2007-10-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

I should buy a lottery ticket, because this has been a lucky week.

First I find out Hell's Highway has played at a horror film festival in Portugal. Then The Seventh Daughter is named one of the winners of the Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. And a couple of days ago I received in the mail a copy of a book that includes an essay I wrote on filmmaker Tod Browning.

Even people who know me well don't know about my the aborted biography I wrote of Browning more than a decade ago. I think the project was jinxed, because it was under contract to two different publishers. One went out of business and at the other, the editor was fired (and the project disappeared with her). Since then, I haven't pursued it much, because straightforward film biographies went out of vogue, and I've chosen to steer my off-the-clock career down a different path. And so, the unpublished Browning book sits in the corner, alongside an unpublished, amateurish novel (Resurrection Blues). From time to time, I've leaked out excerpts of the Browning book. Modified, condensed pieces have been published in the Italian film journal Panta (1994), the French film magazine Positif ("Les passions secretes de Tod Browning," 2000), Video Watchdog ("Hollywood's Sequined Lie: The Gutter Roses of Tod Browning," 1996), and an anthology book on Bela Lugosi (Midnight Marquee Press, 1995).

This latest book is called Tod Browning, fameux inconnu (Tod Browning: The Famous Unknown). To encourage my French-speaking amigos to order the book, I'm posting the English-language version of this essay on my website:

"Slow Fade: Tod Browning's Final Years at MGM"

Maybe someday Browning's films will be given their proper due. They've been a huge influence on me, and my current project is indebted to such seldom-screened films as White Tiger (1923), The Unholy Three (1925), and The Mystic (1925). But then again, maybe it be better for me if I kept them secret.

Just One of the Fellows

2007-10-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

It's official. Today IMAGE and the Atlanta Film Festival announced the winners of their first annual screenplay competition, and I'm proud to say The Seventh Daughter was among them.

Here's the complete list of winners, as listed on Access Atlanta:

"Apparition" by Steven Brooks of Suwanee
"The Seventh Daughter" by Bret Wood of College Park
"Molewhackers" by Yarrow Wayman of Tacoma, Wash.
"Pentimenti" by Jennifer Deaton of Los Angeles
"Vera" by Caitlin McCarthy of Worcester, Mass.
"Zeroes and Ones" by Avi Weider of Brooklyn, N.Y.

My fellow fellows and I will be participating in a weekend retreat, where we'll be mentored by industry professionals and engage in discussion sessions. As I understand it, there will be a public reading of excerpts of each screenplay on Saturday Nov. 10. Don't worry, I'll remind you.

Still Chugging

2007-10-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

The movie that just keeps going.

I recently got a copy of the program for the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Terror de Lisboa (Portugal). I had almost forgotten... but Hell's Highway was invited to play there!

I'm honored that my film was one of five "Terror Docs."

Seems like a great festival (Sept. 5-9). Wish I could've been there.

Interview with Taliesin

2007-09-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've recently had the pleasure of corresponding with Andrew M. Boylan, a UK-based writer interested in all things vampiric. He wrote a really thoughtful piece on Psychopathia back in June (Click here to view).

Since then, we've corresponded a bit, and some of our discussions of Psychopathia have just been put on his site as an interview: Taliesin Meets Bret Wood.

Thanks to Andy for spreading the word and being such a tireless devotee of films and books that don't always get the attention they deserve.

Visit his site, and while you're there, buy his book.

STOP NEIGHBORHOOD SPEEDING

2007-08-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

The previously blogged-about PSA I made for PEDS is now online, and a link is provided below.

This is the "director's cut," and now the story (most of it, anyway) can be told.

We tried to make the PSA a little disturbing, while staying within the barriers of good taste. PEDS is an organization that has never been afraid of being confrontational and provocative, so when they were awarded the funds to shoot a safety PSA, they were inspired by the more graphic PSAs that air in the UK and Australia, as well as the shocking driver education films of the 1960s. So that was our objective as we sat at the drawing board.

Most people would argue that the PSA is too tame, but they would be in the minority. When PEDS submitted the piece to Cinemedia -- the group that produces the promotional packages that run before the movies in regional theatre chains, such as Regal and AMC -- they were told that the piece was too violent. It was suggested that we deleted the effect of the girl getting hit by the car, and the shot of her lying under the coroner's sheet.

Initially, PEDS's response was to bypass Cinemedia and the have the PSA shown on the local cable system, where it could be placed on specific channels, in specific time blocks, so it wouldn't offend sensitive viewers. That should work, right? No soap. Comcast rejected the PSA completely.

Okay... if Regal and AMC Cinemas won't show it... and Comcast won't show it... we'll go directly to the local TV channels. I mean, after all, this was sponsored by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, and they were very pleased with the ad. Sorry. At least two local network affiliates rejected the ad outright. We were later told that the PSA would have to pass through another governmental agency for approval and that there was no way it would pass muster.

The same theatres that show pornographic tripe like HOSTEL 2 and CAPTIVITY won't show the PSA linked above? The same TV channels that show CSI and all that garbage won't show a safety message with suggested violence? Apparently a different sete of standards apply to original content -- as opposed to advertising content. You would think that the person paying for the airtime would enjoy a greater amount of creative freedom, but just the reverse is true. And you would think that a PSA that is trying to save children's lives would be looked upon more favorably than a TV show or movie that stages violence as a form of entertainment. Not the case, my friends.

In the end, Cinemedia agreed to accept a revised PSA (with the same required cuts mentioned above), and would show it on screens showing movies rated PG-13 or R. We agreed, and a revised PSA was born:

Recently, however, a couple of people went to see PG-13 movies for the sole purpose of viewing the PSA beforehand. Much to their surprise, the PSAs did not run. We have just been informed that AMC pulled the ad from all PG-13 screens, and will only show it on R-rated screens. I'm not talking about the "director's cut," I'm talking about the CENSORED VERSION! R-Rated audiences only.

Whom could this ad possibly offend?

SIGHT AND SOUND Review

2007-08-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

The Psychopathia DVD has just been reviewed in the August 2007 issue of Sight and Sound Magazine, and I'm relieved to see it is not only positive but thoughtful and insightful. If only all critics gave a film as much consideration and attention as Tim Lucas does (readers of Video Watchdog know what I'm talking about).

SIGHT AND SOUND Review

It says, in part:

Against all odds...Bret Wood has not only succeeded with his Psychopathia Sexualis, but triumphed. A sinuous interweaving of four case studies and other interludes, this remarkably mature and beautifully photographed debut asserts its own voice (familiar from Wood's documentaries), while balancing fresh cinematic techniques with silent influences and devices (such as iris shots), and Krafft-Ebing's clinical texts with much-needed warmth and empathy. Unlike the pastiche-like ways in which silent imagery is manifest in, for example, Guy Maddin's fine work, Wood's absorption of such techniques evinces a broader range of familiarity and more organic expression. He rarely gives us shots that 'quote' or recreate the great silent masters; instead, he and DP David Bruckner present images those masters might have shot, had they somehow assimilated the last 80 years of cinematography.

Those of you who know me, or have been following the film, know that it got slammed pretty hard by the mainstream critics. The greatest solace is that it didn't get trashed by the writers whom I consider most film-knowledgeable, and whose reviews I most admire. Case in point, the review above.

This review couldn't have come at a better time, as I'm in the home stretch of finishing my screenplay, The Seventh Daughter. A draft had been workshopped earlier in 2007, but it has been pretty thoroughly restructured and rewritten since then, and I am finally starting to feel confident in its potential. I've never experienced writer's block until this year, but I think that's because most of the things I've written have been "slices" of stories, rather than a single complex feature-length narrative. It has been grueling but I'm hoping it will have been worth the effort and frustration.

PEDS Media Event

2007-07-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

You're invited to meet'n'greet at the formal debut of the PSA I recently shot. If you're hanging around in downtown Atlanta Friday lunchtime, pop in and fellowship.

Hopefully soon I'll post the video -- and maybe leak the uncensored version as well.

Bret

PSA Preview

2007-07-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

I recently completed my first direcctor-for-hire job, and am very pleased with the results. It's a public service announcement for the pedestrian safety group PEDS, funded by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. It was produced by Tracy Martin under the banner of her newly formed Medallion Pictures.

Storyboard panel for the first image.

Hopefully PEDS will post it on their website soon, or allow me to feed it to the world via YouTube.

A little later I'll come back on and tell you more about the piece. There was a little bit of controversy regarding the spot. PEDS and the GOHS were cool with it, but certain other parties felt like it was too shocking for general consumption. As a result, the PSA will be circulated in two versions: the original cut, and a family-friendly revised cut.

Below is a shot that you won't see in the family-friendly version:

It was a great experience and I thank Michael Orta of PEDS for giving me the opportunity.

Cellist alert

2007-06-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight I had the good fortune to meet Zoe Keating, a cellist from California... and got to sit in on a recording session with her and Paul Mercer. On a personal level she's aces all the way, and her music is phenomenal.

Zoe's MySpace page Check out the video clips as well as the .mp3's, because the system in which she performs (and accompanies herself) is quite clever.

For those in the Atlanta area, Zoe will be performing at Eyedrum on Friday 6/29 at 9:00 pm. On the same bill, Paul will be performing with his ensemble The Ghosts Project.

With any luck, they'll share some stage time, because they complemented one another beautifully in the studio. Who knows if anything will come of their collaboration earlier tonight, but it's rich with possibilities, because their musical styles are similar enough to make them compatible, but different enough to lead each other into new directions.

Unfortunately, I will be out of town on the night of the show (that's why I bowed and scraped to hang out in the studio).

SINO-PATHIA SEXUALIS

2007-06-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, this is cool. I had heard rumors that PSYCHOPATHIA had been bootlegged on DVD in China, which I was kind of flattered to hear.

Well, someone who travels to China apparently bought a copy, and posted some frame grabs on the web. Why? Well, for some unknown reason, portions of the film are subtitled in English, and it is not an exact transcription of the film's narration.

Now I'm dying to get a copy. Does anyone know how to buy a Chinese bootleg DVD? I know you can download a DVDRip... but I don't know if the rip is of the American DVD or the crazy subtitled edition.

If anyone gets their hands on a copy, please send me a note. I'm not trying to crack down on them, I just want to see it.

PSYCHOPATHIA Writhing

2007-06-15T20:29:00.001-07:00

As we had hoped, Psychopathia Sexualis continues to gain attention well after its theatrical and DVD releases. Because it did not debut in a storm of controversy or publicity, it took a while for the word to spread. But thanks to excellent video sales and priceless word-of-mouth, it is spreading. Word on the street is that it's going to be enthusiastically reviewed in one (possibly two) major film magazine(s) later this year.

Just last week, the film was given an "Honourable Mention" in Andrew Boylan's well-regarded UK blog dedicated to vampire culture Taliesin Meets the Vampires. It was especially gratifying to read his piece, because it was so detailed and thoughtful, focusing primarily on the J.H. sequences.

He writes, "This is a marvellous film, though it will not be to everyone’s taste. Obviously, by the nature of the subject matter viewer discretion is advised. For the genre fan, whilst vampirism is involved in a sexual sense, there is no undead or supernatural involvement but the film does capture the underlying sexuality and eroticism found within the genre and the ties to Stoker are strengthened by the Victorian setting."

After the piece appeared, Andrew and I corresponded a bit and discussed some of the other blood themes flowing through the episode.

"I know where you're getting the blood, Jonathan," says the mother at the end of the sequence.

Do you?

Hopefully Psychopathia will continue to seep out into the wider filmgoing consciousness -- at least until I can get another project off the blocks. By the Fall I should know which project is coming next. Hopefully The Seventh Daughter, but there are a couple of other scripts on the stove, including a black comedy called The Cuckold.

For more info on Andrew M. Boylan, check out his website. Or better yet, order his vampire-themed novel Concilium Sanguinarius.

STORY(LINE) TIME

2007-06-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

If you're awake at 9:00 am on a Saturday, and live in the Atlanta metropolitan area, you should tune in to TBS Channel 17's series Storyline. This week (June 9), producer Jen Brooks has created a story on Atlanta's emerging film scene. I'm told that my interviews are featured fairly prominently, and that I do not have spinach between my front teeth... so I'm feeling good about it. You can see a promo for the episode on their site:

Please note, the show is not shown on Superstation TBS (via satellite and out of town cable systems). Only on WTBS. So out-of-towners will just have to check back on the website. They often post segments online. I'll send out the red-alert if they do so with this one.

In addition to me, she interviewed local producer Linda Burns and filmmaker Dan Bush (one of the directors of The Signal).

Judgement Passing

2007-05-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

If you live in the Atlanta area and haven't seen Judgement yet... and you don't want to watch it online... you can see it this weekend on Georgia Public Television. It will be shown, along with a brief interview with me, on PBA 30's Atlanta Shorts

.

Judgement was made as part of the 48 Hour Film Project in 2005. The curious thing is that it is the first of my films to deal with the father/daughter con artists, who would later return in Psychopathia, and who are the subject of my new screenplay The Seventh Daughter (though each manifestation is very different).

Puppetastic

2007-05-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not one of those bloggers that just posts links to the latest catchy online clips, but I did want to send out a shout about a new short film by Jason Hines. As some of you may know, Jason designed the shadow puppet sequence of Psychopathia Sexualis. He is a master puppetmaker at the Center for Puppetry Arts and every year he participates in the annual event Experimental Puppetry Theatre (this year it's May 19).

Anyway, he made this short film to help promote XPT. I am always in awe of his wit and craftsmanship. Check it out, here's the link:

IN PRIVATE

For more info about XPT, visit: The Center for Puppetry Arts.

Illustrated Face Lift

2007-04-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not posting images of cosmetic surgery, I'm simply announcing that I'm in the process of revamping the Illustrated Films website. My former business partner, Tracy Martin, has started her own company, Medallion Pictures (don't worry, everything's amicable), and I thought it would be a good opportunity to spit-shine the ole website a bit.

Some sections are still under construction but it's coming along. Click on the new I.F. logo below for instant teleportation.

VENOM AND ETERNITY

2007-04-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

As a moviegoer I'm pretty jaded. I just can't deal with the same old crap. I recently put on a DVD of Saw II and turned it off after 10 minutes. What absolute adolescent masturbatory garbage, a rehash of rehashes.

Last night I had the misfortune to attend a screening of Grandhouse. It started out well enough. Rodriguez's film was a loving tribute to the early works of Carpenter, Cronenberg and Romero (but with the obligatory gun-fetishism that is such a tiresome component of his films). It was fun enough, but Rodriguez is no Carpenter, Cronenberg or Romero (who were thought-provoking and subversive beneath their drive-in exteriors). He's more of a Bob Clark (may he rest in peace), Charles Band or Fred Olen Ray. So if you're paying tribute to that kind of crap... in the end, you're going to wind up with crap. And whether it's self-aware or unintentional, all crap smells the same.

But the real shocker was Tarantino's film. I'm not a critic of his, and not particularly a fan either, but he can usually be relied upon for an entertaining (if overlong) movie. Not anymore. After watching this movie I would have to declare him creatively bankrupt. You think I'm joking. Go see it. I was outraged... I wanted to demand my money back (until I realized it was a free screening). It was the most self-indulgent, pointless, boring, thematically flawed, regurgitative, adolescent thing I've ever seen. I think he was aiming for a cross between Hellman's Two Lane Blacktop and Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes but completely dropped the ball.

Why am I going into all this? Stay with me, there's a point. It just so happens that I'm working on a project for Kino right now that is directly relevant to this cinematic weltschmerz. It's called Traite de bave et d'eternite (Venom and Eternity), by Jean Isidore Isou. I'd never heard of it either prior to this project. But it has absolutely blown my mind.

I haven't seen this much passion and cleverness and wit in a movie in months, probably years.

It is a French experimental film of 1951, and it sprang out of the Lettrist movement, part of the philosophical underground of Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Well what it is is a long, angry manifesto about filmmaking, and a passionate assault on cinematic convention and conventional tastes. It rejects conventional narrative, conventional visual devices, conventional editing, conventional structure, conventional music, conventional language (some of it is in jibberish, believe it or not). For almost two hours it is this passionate young cineaste belching out his hopes and philosophies and criticisms over stock footage and shots of himself walking around Paris.

The film stock is often scratched, defaced, and turned upside down. "Let people come out of a movie with a headache," the protagonist declares, while people jeer him angrily in the background, "There are so many movies from which one emerges as stupid as one entered. I'd rather give you a migraine than nothing at all. I'm not paid by an optometrist to bring him clients, but I should rather ruin your eyes than leave them indifferent."

I know, it sounds pretentious, but it lacerates pretentious cinema. How's that possible? How's this... when it premiered at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, it caused a riot, and the police had to turn fire hoses on the mob to break it up. Can you imagine that much passion about film? It almost brings tears to my eyes -- considering the depressing state of film appreciation in the world today (which I've blogged about repeatedly). Venom and Eternity wears its heart on its sleeve and furiously declares its love for Stroheim, Griffith, Browning, Chaplin, Cocteau, with almost embarrassing earnestness. And bear in mind, this was before the French New Wave (Cahiers du Cinema would begin publication that year).

Yeah, it's got some drawbacks -- depicting the main character as a heroic womanizer, but even some of that can't help but bring a smile to your face. "I know that love has never been enough for a young man, but always wanting to conquer the world," the spurned girlfriend says at one point, "You are defying the world, Daniel,"

The Lettrists were a pretty radical bunch. They supposedly disrupted Easter high mass at the Notre Dame cathedral. Supposedly they gagged, bound and stripped a priest, then one of the Lettrists put on his garb, ran up to the pulpit and said, "brothers, God is dead!" before the worshippers tried to murder him (he was saved by the police).

So... seeing a movie like Venom and Eternity takes some of the sting out of something as witless as Tarantino's Grindhouse entry. Just confirms what I've been saying for years. The contemporary cinema is an artistic sinkhole.

I wonder what Isou would have said about something like Saw II or Grindhouse.

Incidentally, Venom has only been seen in America in a truncated 77 minute edition. I'm now completing the restoration, which re-integrates deleted footage and brings it up to 111 minutes.

SECURITY online

2007-03-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading, you know that a couple of weeks ago I sujected myself to the weekend-filmmaking challenge again, against my better judgement. Fortunately, the experience was much more rewarding than it has been in the past, and I walked away with a pretty decent film, SECURITY.

So now there's this other aspect to the project -- where they've put everyone's films online and people are supposed to vote to see which ones are shown at the Atlanta Film Festival. That's cool, for the most part, but we're supposed to be out campaigning, getting people to come to the site and vote for their film. Because no one is going to watch every film on the list, the winners will most likely be the team with the largest family. I feel like I'm selling Girl Scout Cookies... or, worse, competing on American Idol.

So listen, here's the link. Watch the movie, vote for it or rate it if you want to, but don't knock yourself out. I want to support the festival but this is not a game I particularly want to play.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND RATE "SECURITY"

Final disclaimer: there is no audio during most of the short.

And be sure and check out some of the other entries.

COMPLETE LINEUP.

Some of them are very clever. Some will make your blood run cold.

Pushing Paper

2007-03-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a difficult thing to do, but it had to be done.

Over the past couple of months, I've packed up my fairly extensive movie poster collection and shipped it out to an eBay consignment merchant that specializes in movie posters. I'd been collecting posters since high school (The Elephant Man and Breaking Away were the first one-sheets I ever owned) and gobbled up every poster I could afford during college -- as if these precious investments couldn't help but skyrocket in value. I mean everyone loves movie posters, right?

Sob.

Well, I think movie posters, like classic cinema, are quickly becoming a thing of the past. That is, their audience is shrinking, not growing. The current generation of film enthusiasts look at cinema history differently. They generally have a shallow pool of film knowledge (30 years at the most), and no longer look at films as a precious commodity. I guess because films have been so widely available on DVD that they haven't experienced the feeling of film lust. Those of you over 40 know what I'm talking about... before the days of VCRs and 100-channel cable systems. When the only way you could see a particular classic movie was to hope that it showed up on late-night television or a screening at a film society or repertory house (two institutions that are almost completely obsolete).

When you got to see movies like Shadow of a Doubt or The Lady from Shanghai, you really treasured them, because of their scarcity. No one today can experience what it's like to try and stay awake until 3:00 am in order to catch a late-late show screening of Lolita or Badlands on the CBS late movie. Discovering the hidden, appreciating the arcane was a great feeling. It didn't satisfy one's curiosity about cinema, it fueled it. A cineaste was like a bloodhound catching a scent and then following that faint, elusive trail deep into a forest of discovery, where one would stumble across similar films, films by the same director, constantly building a vocabulary of film, better understanding the context in which these films were made and released.

And movie poster collecting -- at least for me -- went hand in hand with that quest for knowledge and joy of discovery. It signified not only finding the films, but possessing a piece of their history. If you couldn't own a film, you could own an artifact of their original theatrical release. To a kid without much of a life in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that was a pretty special thing.

But now I have more of a life. And a child. And a mortgage. And plans to make more films. So it's time to part with those relics. For one thing, I don't put movie posters up on my wall... so what good are several crates of posters? And secondly, the value of the posters is not really going up. The market for these things is evidently shrinking, because they aren't selling for nearly as much as I would've hoped. Yeah, I've scored some nice sales, but all in all, they aren't going to fund a film or put a kid through college. Curiously, the things that seem to bring the most money are second-rate AIP/Corman films (The Undead, The Bonnie Parker Story, X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes). Odd. Hitchcock and Kubrick are selling well -- as one would expect.

Shipping away the posters, watching them being hawked on eBay, reminds me of the time when I really had a passion for film. I would say "Maybe it's a college-age thing," but having taught Film History at an art college, and seeing the lack of interest first-hand, makes me think it's more of a generational thing. One reason I'm having this flashback to a time when people were passionate about film is because I'm currently working on the reconstruction of a Lettrist film of 1951: Jean-Isidore Isou's Venom and Eternity (Traité de bave et d'éternité). Talk about passion for film! It's jaw-dropping.

...and it will be the topic of my next entry.

Security / Rapid-I

2007-03-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm way behind in my blogging... but I've been busy. If you know me in the real world, you know the nightmare of home renovation we're living through right now. Can we talk about something else, please?

Instead, I'd rather tell you about the short film I made last weekend. It was made for "Rapid-I Movement," sort of like the 48 Hour Film Project, but presented under the auspices of IMAGE Film & Video Center and the Atlanta Film Festival. And you have 50 hours to make a short film, not 48.

The film is being shown Tuesday March 20 at the Plaza Theater in Atlanta, at 9:30 pm.

After last year's 48, I swore I'd never do it again. Because we were really ambitious, and had truckloads of equipment, rented a huge location (a church), with a sizable cast and crew. Hair, makeup, costumes, the whole nine yards. It about wiped me out.

So this year, I was going to avoid the whole weekend-film scene, until Gabe Wardell, the new director of IMAGE encouraged me to enter Rapid-I and use it as an opportunity to just shoot something different -- experiment -- be creative -- rather than spending all the energy on gloss.

So I did, and I'm glad I did. It was a very small crew. We had minimal equipment and a realistic shot list. As a result, I got to spend a lot more time with the actors, brainstorm as we went, and let the movie evolve on the spot.

The unsung hero of the shoot was John Kuhn, who loaned me a black-and-white video camera from the 1970s to shoot with (analog!). Adam K. Thompson, who worked with me on Psychopathia, was the d.p. The camera is seen below, shooting a scene with Daniel May (who contributed so much to the project that he shares writing credit).

The short is called Security. The concept is that the story is told from the perspective of four security cameras mounted throughout a grungy industrial building. The angles are therefore fixed, and the editing is locked into seven-second chunks (as the system is automated to switch from one camera to the next, in the same sequence).

The point of the film was to generate tension and frustration in the viewer without the usual trappings of slick photography, rapid editing and a complicated sound mix. Most of this film is silent. And when I mean silent I mean DEAD silent. The only audio occurs when someone within the film makes a panicked call to the police (all audio for the film was recorded over the phone). Speaking of phone, the rules required that we include a coin-operated machine in the short... so in the middle of the night I had to build a pay-phone kiosk in my driveway, then haul it to the location and install it on a wall (see photo below, featuring Jane Bass, as actors go, one of my personal faves).

I also wanted to explore the idea of TV violence, and play on the audience's expectations. Rather than present a pumped-up spectacle of violence (the way so many 48-hour type films do), I wanted to reduce the violence to a grim experience that is unpleasant to watch. Unpleasant in that it is not glamorous. Unpleasant in that the audio/video quality is wretched. Unpleasant in that the mechanical editing constantly interrupts the action.

To make the image look suitably grungy, we shot it on the outmoded camera (apparently with a broken tube), then I dubbed it off to VHS (six hour speed) and back to DV three times until the image started to distort.

Does it succeed? I haven't watched it since I turned it in. I'm guessing that it functions well as a strange little experiment in filmmaking... but I doubt that it manages to convey all the ideas that I hoped it would (incriminating the audience in the violence by making the culprit associate himself with the viewer: he commits a crime of passion... but then, once he realizes he's being taped on a security camera, decides to "perform" for the camera... so he stages a second crime, just for the benefit of the audience). It's hard to pack that much nuance into a film shot in a single day, written in a few hours... but that's what this project was all about... experimenting... road testing ideas.

Seth Joiner and myself on the set.

Special thanks to Victor Lambert, for gamely rushing to the set in the eleventh hour, then smearing himself with chocolate syrup and crawling around on the floor. No, I'm not joking. Thanks also to Jill Perry, for "phoning one in." No, I'm not being sarcastic.

All Aboard

2007-02-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm long overdue on a follow-up blog regarding last Saturday's staged reading of The Seventh Daughter. I'LL GET TO IT! Just give me time to catch up on my sleep and gather my thoughts.

Meanwhile, check this out. It's part of a project going on in different cities, where arts organizations are presenting a play-a-day, written by Suzan-Lori Parks (who wrote 365 plays in 365 days -- you get the idea).

Friend and filmmaker Niklas Vollmer, with collaborator Ruth Stanford, shot their plays on digital video, using passers-by at downtown Marta stations. That's cool enough, but they then presented the finished works (along with supplemental video of the various participants -- many of whom REFUSE to participate) on a cleverly-conceived multi-video-screen website:

OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS PROJECT
www.atl365tracks.org

Please check it out and have fun with it. You HAVE to have a high-speed connection, and it takes a while to get the hang of the interface, with the multiple video windows, but once you get it all working, it's like playing with a train set (bells and whistles indeed).

It takes our conventionalized ideas of theatre and explodes them in multiple ways.

Engineer's hats off to Nik and Ruth.

Best Film of 2006!

2007-02-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

Forget Little Miss Sunshine and all that crap! The best picture of 2006 is only 30 seconds long.

I've been talking to Michael Orta at the pedestrian safety organization PEDS, about possibly shooting a PSA for their group. He showed me this British PSA and honestly, I think about it more than any movie I saw in 2006. It is amazing.

You think I'm joking, but I'm not. Who says the best movies have to be feature-length? One of my favorite movies of all time is something called Photographing a Female Crook (1904, Biograph Co.). It is jam packed with more technical daring (a dolly shot in 1904!), more thematic complexity, and more dramatic power than anything you can see at the modern-day multiplex... and it's less than one minute long! You look at it once, you think it's one thing, you watch it again, and you see this layer of meaning beneath the surface, you watch it again, and suddenly the film is communicating things you thought were beyond the beyond the abilities of filmmakers of 1904. Dang. I guess I need to find my copy and digitize it and upload it so people will know what I'm talking about.

I recently read Theodore Roszak's Flicker (thanks Genevieve for the tip) and Photographing a Female Crook is one of those films that might have inspired the novel. Something that reveals more meaning the more you look at it... and especially if one is versed in the language of silent film and can watch pre-talkies in the proper mindset. But don't get me started on that issue.

Photographic Evidence

2007-02-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

Someone involved in Brave New Works recently asked if the scenes involving the seance cabinet and teleplasmic materialization were an exaggeration. So, I thought I'd post a couple of images taken by Baron Freiherr Albert von Schrenck-Notzing himself. Yes, there was such a person. He documented the cases of mediums in incredible detail, logging the results of hundreds of private seances in his fascinating book Phenomena of Materialisation.

This is a picture of Stanislawa Tomczyk, from whose mouth a teleplasm is emerging. The photo was taken from inside the cabinet.

Below is an image of Eva C., who was a medium of whom Schrenck seemed to be particularly fond. She is holding the folds of the cabinet curtains so her hands remain visible at all times. Upon her head is a teleplastic materialization.

You can't make this stuff up.

Brief bio of Schrenck-Notzing.

Cutting Loose

2007-02-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Well... it wasn't exactly a cold read, but it was the first time the script was read aloud by a group of actors. Because of time restraints, we didn't quite make it through to the end... and I'm squirming to get back in there and see the pieces start to knit themselves together.

It's hard to be patient... but I'm learning.

As a writer/director, my experience working with actors is somewhat limited. As an admitted fault, I come from the megalomaniacal approach of "I have a movie in my head and I want it acted and photographed to my precise specifications." Okay, I know that's wrong on so many levels. Foremost is the fact that it would put restraints upon the life that talented actors might breathe into the roles, lifting them above my preconceptions and expectations and taking them in new, potentially more dramatically gratifying directions. I know that. As you can tell, I've read the books. But still, it's hard not to wish one person could speak that line the way the millionaire yells "Oh loverrr!" in The Lady from Shanghai, or the way the cop says, "Why do you make me do it? You know I'm gonna make you talk. I always make you talk," in On Dangerous Ground. And even if I could dig up Everett Sloane, Robert Ryan or the sailor boy from Applause, it wouldn't be fair to chain them to such specific deliveries of their lines.

I'm a control freak, okay? It's called being a director -- even a soft-spoken one. I am just extremely glad that Alexandre Harrington is assuming the role of director because I wouldn't know where to begin to prepare a cast for a feature-length performance with eighteen hours of rehearsal. As the writer, I'm watching and, like I said, learning. But that's what Brave New Works is about, a nerve-wracking swan dive of theatrical, resourceful creativity.

I spoke to Joseph Skibell, whose novel A Blessing on the Moon is being adapted in Brave New Works as a musical/dance performance. And I could see he shared (to some degree) the same mixture of exhilaration and terror that are -- I'm told -- natural at this stage in the process.

But mostly exhilaration.

Just to make myself clear, I'm not complaining about where we stand after the first night's read -- just trying to convey the sense of anxiety of wanting one's script to live up to the potential one imagines it to have. That maddening feeling of watching your child walk into the hall where the SAT's are given... wondering if you've done everything you could to insure his/her/its success at one of life's many make-or-break moments.

By and large, I've got to say I'm very happy with where we are, one foot out of the gate. But clearly, a great distance is yet to be traveled. For one thing, I've got to cut away the bulk of the scene description that weighs down the drama like sandbags tied to the side of a hot air balloon. Because when the actors are given room to breathe and speak -- and react to one another -- the story really comes alive (I've gotta say, scenes 30 and 31 were amazing).

So between now and Tuesday 2/13 (rehearsal #2), we'll cut some of the safety ropes and see where the wind -- and a very ambitious cast of actors -- decide to carry it.

Interview link

2007-02-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd post a link to an interview (by John Marrone) that appeared today on a horror film website:

House of Horrors.

It begins:

After recently reviewing Psychopathia Sexualis, I had come across a wide variety of negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes - most of which seemed to ignoranly miss the point of what the filmmaker was presenting to the keener eye. In an age of breast implants and plastic surgery, many were expecting titilating tits and ass and were disappointed upon being turned off by hairy, carnival quality frontal male nudity, and the like. I got in touch with the director Bret Wood and probed the mental poetic licensing behind Psychopathia Sexualis and ended up in a deep conversation about the golden age of early cinema and the qualities of it that fans like ourselves tend to often overlook...
read more.

A Change of Course

2007-01-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd update everyone on my screenplay project which is being performed at Brave New Works.

After a table read, several discussion and a series of rewrites, I decided to put Eden, Alabama on the back burner for a while, until I could spend more time working out its kinks. The world hasn't seen the last of back-slapping, porn-peddling Shriner Cal Jenkins... he's just taking some time to get to know himself a little better.

Thanks to all the actors who came out for the initial reading (Bryan Davis, Robert Hatch, Mary Kraft, Patrick Parker, Daniel Triandiflou, Christie Vozniak, Patrick Wood), producer Tracy Martin, and most of all actor Daniel Burnley, who has been a huge inspiration in the writing of the Cal Jenkins character -- and will hopefully one day get to wear his fez. And thanks also to Lisa Paulsen and Amy Cook for their feedback and guidance.

In its stead, we're bumping a different project of mine to the front of the line: The Seventh Daughter. This is the script that I am more exciting about writing and directing, but had initially shied away from it because it's a costume picture, set in the U.S. between 1916 and 1920.

The Seventh Daughter is the project that more excited me as a filmmaker, because I can't wait to lose myself in its world. I can already imagine the look and feel and emotional tone of its scenes, envision its shots, practically hear the score. It's the kind of movie I'd love to make... simply for the pleasure of making the movie.

But I was hesitant to do so, right after Psychopathia because I wanted to prove I could do something besides Victorian-era dark intrigue. After sweating over revisions to Eden for several weeks, I finally asked, "prove to who?" If I'm going to undertake another labor of love, it should be A) a project I love and B) a project I actually want to labor over it. And in the end I think The Seventh Daughter will make a better film... and allow me the time and space to develop Eden, Alabama at my own pace (it was the first time I've ever experienced writer's block, and it was pretty scary).

So, here I am, back in the 1910s, in America this time, with a burned-out, opium-addicted carnival psychic and his apprentice: his naive teenage daughter (who has been raised in a convent orphanage). Shades of West of Zanzibar and Applause, with hearty twists of William Lindsay Gresham, Fritz Lang and Louis Feuillade? Abso-doggone-lutely.

Anyone who's seen Psychopathia will be able to recognize the central characters. They appear in the "Divertissement" section of the film (the puppeteer Caglios and his mute daughter).

I'm hoping to use this blog as a way of documenting the workshop process, starting with a cold table read (hopefully next week), continuing through the various readings, workshops, rehearsals, up through the staged reading on Saturday February 24 at 7:00 pm.

Tickets for the event are free and you can already reserve them at the Emory box-office (space is limited, so reservations are recommended).

TICKET INFORMATION

The director of the staged reading will be Alexandre Harrington, who is uniquely qualified for The Seventh Daughter's particular brand of stylized language. Alexandre specializes in voice and diction, and spent years as an actor and voice coach in London and Paris.

More info on cast, crew and the screenplay's evolution as the process gets started next week.

PSYCHOPATHIA DVD Reviews

2007-01-08T09:34:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd post (and periodically update) some of the reviews of the Psychopathia DVD as they come in:

Digitally Obsessed
*A very lengthy, detailed review of the feature, and the DVD's bonus materials

DVD Talk
"...certainly a film unlike anything you've seen this year."

houseofhorros.com
"You wont catch yourself masturbating to this one, thats for sure - and if you do, for Gods sake, seek counseling."

Eros-Zine.com
"Probably one of the most interesting films about sex ever made."

boxoffice.com (podcast)
Skip forward to 01:01:30

Turner Classic Movies

Video Business

Blood Fantasy

2007-01-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

Last-minute announcement. Tonight, Wednesday, January 3, 2007, Creative Loafing is staging its annual Fiction Contest Party at Eyedrum, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

I will not be there, but they will be featuring a video installation that I prepared for the eveng, entitled "Blood Fantasy 07" (to tie in with this year's fiction contest theme of "Blood").

Those of you involved in the making of Psychopathia will immediately recognize it. It is a scene that was not used in the theatrical release of the film, but which I have reedited into a stylized 21-minute piece. It will play on a loop throughout the evening.

Special thanks to Oz Dillman, Sarah Falkenburg and Kalina McCreery.

Incidentally, a standard cut of the sequence (with music by Paul Mercer) is included on the Psychopathia DVD, which is released TUESDAY!

Blood on the Windscreen

2006-12-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago, when Hell's Highway was being released, I spoke to John Harrison, a guy in Melbourne, Australia who runs a publishing company and memorabilia resale operation called The Graveyard Tramp.

Well he interviewed me for a UK book called Suture, which is yet to be published. However, he has published an edited version of the outstanding article on his Myspace blog.

CLICK HERE FOR "BLOOD ON THE WINDSCREEN"

Click here for The Graveyard Tramp Myspace page

Eden Video Teasers

2006-11-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

A burst of Thanksgiving Eve inspiration caused me to spend a couple of hours working on the Eden, Alabama website. I assembled a couple of video clips that hint at the milieu and flavor I want the film to have... if and when the cameras ever turn its direction.

Ahh... grainy black and white 16mm in a cheap motel room.

I'm hoping that as the weeks pass, the site will grow larger, more complex and more eclectic, and the town of Eden will begin to materialize in people's minds... if not on their movie screens.

The main site is here:

Eden, Alabama website

Click on "View Parade Video" to watch one of the movies.

The other, more provocative movie, can be accessed at the
Local Attractions page.

EDEN, Here I Come

2006-11-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'm done with it.

Actually, I'm done with the first draft of it. After much struggle with the always challenging third act, I'm finished with my screenplay of Eden, Alabama. I'm sure that in the months to come I'll continue to tinker and rewrite, but it feels like the story is essentially there.

When I wrote Psychopathia, the longest individual segment was maybe fifteen pages. And even then, I did very little revision. The 100-page single narrative proved much more difficult than expected.

Hey, I'm no neophyte, I've written scripts before. Tons of them. But most of them deserve to remain buried in the green file cabinet to my immediate left. The experience of making Psychopathia, talking to viewers about it, reading reviews of it, taught me more about screenwriting than any class or book ever did. Let's just say I took the art of screenwriting much more seriously. In fact, I can safely say that anything I wrote prior to Psychopathia could be thrown in the trash without qualm.

It used to be if I wrote a good scene, it stayed in the script no matter what. Whereas now -- having killed plenty of darlings in the editing of Psychopathia, removing great scenes that just don't work within the context of the film -- I know it's better to chop out anything that doesn't significantly establish the setting, character, tone or advance the plot. If I'm still in love with the unnecessary scene three years from now, we can put it on the DVD, right? (knock wood).

So what now?

I'll provide more details later but one day, later in November, I'm going to have a table read with a group of actors, just to hear it out loud for the first time. If you're an actor reading this, let me know if you're interested. Coffee and donuts on me.

As I've mentioned before -- and will no doubt remind you again later -- the script was selected for inclusion in their biennial "Brave New Works" play festival. In February, it will be intensively rehearsed in a workshop environment. Amy Cook will be directing the actors. Daniel Burnley (who stars in my short film Rapture) will have the lead as Cal Jenkins, smut-peddling Shriner extraordinaire. Then on Saturday, February 24 at 7:00 pm, Eden, Alabama will be performed as a staged reading at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. Refreshments and feedback session to follow.

If your curiosity is piqued and you want to know more about Eden, Alabama, you can go to the official website (A Tourism and Business Guide, sponsored by the Eden Jaycees). It doesn't reveal the plot of the story, but it offers little glimpses at the locations and events that figure prominently.

www.edenalabama.com

Cucalorus 12

2006-11-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

Well, Thursday November 9, Psychopathia played what is probably its last festival -- and went out with a bang. Called "The best kept secret on the indie fest circuit," the Cucalorus Film Festival is a compact and energetic three-day fest in Wilmington, NC. Because Wilmington is eager to woo filmmakers, the festival is given loads of support by the community.
Psychopathia had the good fortune to play in Thalian Hall, an amazing opera house built in 1858.

And the film never looked better. The projection system installed in the theatre was phenomenal. I don't know if they up-res'ed the SD to HD, but the image was crystal clear, and the sound was throbbing. It's always great to end a film's run on a high note.

The screenings were well-attended, the audiences were enthusiastic, and there were constant opportunities to mix'n'mingle. The films at Thalian were introduced by the vocal and guitar stylings of off-kilter troubador Matt Malloy. There was, indeed, a festive air. Kudos to festival director Dan Brawley and crew (including Joel, Barbara, Allison, Andrea, Dixon and others).

Here's a link to a brief interview with me that ran in the local paper.

As an added bonus, I got to see the police station featured in Blue Velvet (sorry, I didn't take a camera), and visited the amazing Cape Fear Serpentarium, owned and operated by writer/crooner/painter/herpetologist Dean Ripa. Judging from the website, I thought it was going to be a roadside snake shack, but it was an extremely well-designed hall of snakes, with incredibly well-crafted habitats (better than I've seen at any zoo).

Alright, festival fun is over...I gotta get busy and make another film.

Lynch Art

2006-10-31T21:47:00.000-08:00

Back in 1998 I wrote an essay on David Lynch's forays into fine art (painting, photography, printmaking), which was published in Art Papers magazine. I had begun to think the article had vanished forever, since I no longer have a copy... but tonight I Googled myself (it's okay, we all do it, you won't go blind) and there it was, compliments of a website called The City of Absurdity, a Lynch-devoted website created by Mike Hartmann.

Looking back on the essay, it's not very good. Because I was used to writing about film, and had less experience (and confidence) writing about art, I overcompensated with a lot of convoluted pseudo-academic-speak. Regardless, there are still a few nice insights hiding within.

Anyway, here it is, just to preserve it for the record:

"Organic Phenomena: DAVID LYNCH's Deepening Mysteries"

At the time, Lynch's people agreed to a brief interview... which kept being delayed and delayed. Finally, I offered to just fax a handful of questions and, after some more haranguing, finally got some responses. It is all too clear that he was pressed for time and didn't want to go into detail. So it's not much of an interview, but here it is if anyone's interested (Thanks again to Mike Hartmann, whoever you are, you have a great website).

Head to Head: an interview with David Lynch

More from the MPAA

2006-10-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well, the controversial scene was cut, and Psychopathia was issued its official R rating. Kino has already announced the release of two DVDs -- so everybody's happy.

As you may know, the way the ratings system has worked in the past few years, distributors not only label their films with the rating, but provide a summation of the content that caused it to earn the rating. Usually they say something like "adult language, graphic violence," something like that. But I'm proud to Psychopathia has the strangest warning I've ever seen:

"Strong sexual content including aberrant and deviant behavior, graphic
nudity, some violence and disturbing images."

I find this particularly ironic since so many critics complained that the movie was too tame. You just can't win.

And the MPAA says...

2006-10-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally got unofficial notification of Psychopathia Sexualis's rating. It scored a tentative NC-17, for one brief scene in which one actor squeezes an apple juice box with the straw aimed at the mouth of another actor. Well... that's not exactly what's going on in the scene, but that's how we filmed it.

They're kind enough to give you an informal report on the objections raised by the ratings board... and give you the option of making changes -- essentially allowing the filmmaker/distributor to choose the rating they want (by editing the film according to their comments).

So, Kino has agreed to distribute two versions of Psychopathia on DVD: the R-rated director's cut and the unrated DVD. Why unrated and not NC-17?

As I understand it, you pay for the MPAA to issue a rating certificate. So we're opting for the R. If we want the NC-17 in addition to the R, then we'd have to pay a separate fee. And that money could be well spent elsewhere... like the authoring of a separate DVD, the creation of the glass master from which DVDs are made. Oh, how quickly the expenses add up.

I'm grateful to Kino for consenting to the dual version. It's a lot of hassle, and extra expense, but I think having an R-rated version and an unrated version will add to the allure of the picture. Hopefully those who stumble across the R-rated DVD will then rent/buy the uncut edition to see what they missed.

And they will have missed quite a bit. Instead of just trimming out the offending shot (approximately one-second in length), I opted to remove the entire two-minute scene.

One more thing -- new content calls for a new boxcover. Here is the tentative Psychopathia DVD jacket, with butt-crack tastefully concealed in shadow.

So Queue me

2006-09-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here we are, three months away from Psychopathia's DVD release (January 9, 2007, srp $29.95), and the film has already appeared in the Netflix database.

CLICK HERE

I encourage all you "friends of Psychopathia" out there to visit Netflix and save it your want lists right away, so that when the DVD is released, it will automatically roll over into your queue (and presumably put you near the front of the line).

Why am I encouraging people to RENT the movie instead of buying it? Because I want you to see it, by hook or by crook. Is that so wrong?

Bret

TCM Site

2006-09-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

Even people who know me don't know that I occasionally moonlight for Turner Classic Movies. Drawing on my background in film history, I write brief appreciations of classic films for their website. Because I haven't been posting much lately (I'm ALMOST done with the script!), I thought I'd throw up some links to pieces about films that I am particularly fond of (this is only a small sampling).

THE AFFAIRS OF ANATOL
THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN
THE BLACK CAT
DOCTOR X
DONA BARBARA
THE ELEPHANT MAN
THE FUGITIVE
JERICHO
LEAVES FROM SATAN'S BOOK
MACAO
THE MATING CALL
THE MERRY WIDOW
MONSOON
OUTRAGE
THE PENALTY
QUEEN KELLY
Sam Fuller profile
THE SCAR OF SHAME
SCARFACE
SUNRISE
THE TRAIN
THE UNHOLY THREE (1925)

... and here's an interview with me from their site regarding the Avant-Garde DVD set I produced:

AVANT-GARDE Interview

PSYCHOPATHIA Lately

2006-09-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated anyone about Psychopathia lately, so I thought I'd post some info. We're working on the DVD right now -- content as well as packaging. Here are first-drafts of the boxcover, for those Psychopathia aficionados out there.

Note that it says "Unrated Director's Cut." This is assuming the MPAA gives it an NC-17. The film is in their hands now and we're awaiting the verdict. It would actually be better -- marketing-wise -- if they give it an R, then we only have to print one boxcover. But this comes with a dilemma all its own. We can't even pitch it to Blockbuster with the woman in her current state of undress... so we'd probably be forced to print a second version just for them, anyway. It's all a numbers game, which I try not to get too involved in.

Psychopathia plays in Cleveland, OH in October 4. And it looks like it's going to have another festival playdate in November -- info to be posted once it becomes official.

Driving up to Dixie

2006-08-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Since the Milledgeville trip got some of the mental cylinders firing, I took another socio-historic expedition last night -- to the Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Georgia. Let me up front say that I have no interest in NASCAR culture -- absolutely none. But this ain't NASCAR. Not by 3/8 of a mile -- that's the length of the dirt oval around which the home-grown Econo Bombers, Limited Late Models, Super Bombers and Pony Stocks gound their way to modest glory.

Dixie was built in 1969 and, much to my satisfaction, looks like it hasn't changed a bit. I had recently watched Lamont Johnson's The Last American Hero (1973) and the movie could've been filmed there yesterday. The grandstand was pristine, with the "Welcome to Dixie Speedway" sign gloriously uncorrupted.

It's such a joy to go to a public space that is untainted by crass corporate sponsorship. There are a handful of painted plywood billboards out by the third turn, for places like The Dixie Land Fill and Lucas Oil. Alternatively, the Georgia Aquarium is a repulsive spectacle in out-of-control commercialism. I recently went to a Braves game and every square inch of the place was branded with someone's logo. And the ballgame was insignificant in relation to the enormous jumbotron video screen that flashed and endless series of commercials and cornball graphics. Meanwhile, the play-by-play at Dixie was provided over an old-school p.a. system, by a gloriously unpretentious announcer (someone nearby on the first turn concocted a drinking game in which participants heist one every time the announcer says, "I tell you what...").

The best way I can describe it is a cross between a high school football game and a cockfight (I went to one of those a few years ago, but that's another story). It was a communal experience far more socially gratifying than a night in Virginia Highlands, it was a much more visceral experience than a concert or a movie (being pelted with ground red clay as the cars churn past, smelling popcorn and exhaust, feeling the deep roar of the engines and the occasional thump against the concrete wall about 50 feet away). After all that, the demolition derby (with only five cars) was something of an anti-climax.

Driving down to Milledgeville

2006-08-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Spent the day yesterday exploring the grounds of the Central State Hospital. Any longtime locals will know that's formerly known as Milledgeville State Hospital, and the historically-minded will know that it was once called the Georgia Lunatic Asylum.

Whatever you want to call it, it was the largest mental hospital in the world -- a self-contained city, with its own post office, fire department, and zip code.

I'm not working on a new project related to Milledgeville, but just exploring possibilities.

Those who lived around mid-century Georgia are very familiar with Milledgeville's reputation. Like state hospitals across the country, it embraced some of the more violent methods of psychotherapy: insulin shock, metrazol convulsive therapy, electroshock treatment and, of course, prefrontal lobotomies. At one time they were reportedly administering 3,000 shock treatments per year. That's eleven or twelve sessions per day (assuming a five-day therapy schedule), which must have been an assembly-line process.

What's interesting is that the people working at the hospital are well aware of its reputation, but are comfortable with it, since it's safely isolated in the past. On a guided tour of the hospital's museum, the docent cheerfully showed us the lobotomy picks (transorbital leucotomes), a strait-jacket ("these are still being manufactured today, but we no longer use them here at the hospital") and a MedElec Westinghouse electroshock therapy kit.

The employees I met at CSH aren't particularly proud of Milledgeville's grim past, but at least it's something.

A good example. As a means of raising funds to restore the cemeteries where thousands of "clients" were buried (either in unmarked graves or graves marked by numbered spikes which were casually unearthed and tossed aside over the years) the Georgia Consumer Council (an organization comprised of former "clients") sells copies of a sensational tell-all book by Dr. Peter G. Cranford, once the Chief Clinical Psychologist at Milledgeville. In today's tight-fisted governmental economy, the only way to raise money for something like cemetery restoration (so the deceased patients can have some sort of posthumous dignity) is to capitalize on the horrible threatment some of those patients received.

Maybe the horror stories of what went on there in the 1930s through the '50s add a littlle zest to a place that is otherwise quiet and dull. The feeling one gets while walking or driving through the campus is that it's all steadily deteriorating. The central administrative building (the Powell Building) has been well maintained, but the other elaborate buildings -- the enormous turn-of-the-century patient wards, the Victorian nurse's dormitory -- have either been torn down or are now boarded up and condemned. Most of the patients (they refer to them as "clients") are now housed in nondescript brick '70s style institutional buildings.

But don't get the wrong idea. Milledgeville wasn't an isolated torture ward. The abovementioned psychotherapy treatments were widely embraced and were practiced at state mental hospitals across the country. Albert Deutsch's book The Shame of the States (1948) was an expose of the conditions and treatments of state mental hospitals. If you have a copy, loan it to me.

Beneath the rock

2006-07-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, I don't have a lot to say, but I feel terrible that I've left the blog go unfed and unwatered for so long, so let me cough up a few syllables to update the world.

Psychopathia just keeps chugging along. The Atlanta Film Festival screening was so successful that the film has been invited to play at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival in late August. Don't worry, information will be provided if and when that date comes through.

All of my spare time has been consumed with reading and writing. Feeding my head and finishing up a new script. Upon advice from counsel, I'm moving away from Victorian debauchery for a while (but only for a while) and concentrating on a more contemporary, down-to-earth type story. The result is Eden, Alabama, a comedy set in the 1960s South -- but not your typical sweet tea, coming-of-age story. Not by a long shot.

It isn't completely official yet, but it appears that the script has been chosen for the 2007 Brave New Works Festival A biennial program of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory, Brave New Works is a play development lab in which emerging and established writers intensively workshop their plays (and screenplays), which are then presented to the public as staged readings.

It really runs contrary to my nature to discuss something in advance like that -- as I am a firm believer in the destructive power of the jinx -- but I'm trying to break my old habits and learn some new tricks.

Previously I have been one of those filmmakers who keeps the film squirreled away inside my head and gradually revealed to the cast and crew on a need-to-know basis. Brave New Works offers the welcome challenge of having the entire screenplay laid bare to every actor, every collaborator, and opened up for discussion and development. Rather than conceptualizing a film's visual style and then building a narrative within it, I will now reverse the process and focus my primary energies on plot structure, character, dialogue, conflict... to create a script that is bullet-proof and water-tight.

Originally I had planned to introduce a lot of the script's visual stylings into the staged readings (integrating projected video, etc. because the script includes several films-within-the-film). But I quickly realized that if I'm going to do this, I've got to do it without a crutch. So the script will have to sink or swim without the aid of visual embellishments.

Okay, now that you see the enormity of the challenge, you'll understand if I'll disappear for a few more weeks and keep hammering.

Where I've been hiding

2006-07-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings, friends and loyal readers.

I just wanted to post an update so you wouldn't think I had totally vanished from blogdom. I've just been taking advantage of the down-time between Psychopathia's East Coast runs (which concluded in late June) and the West Coast runs (which start in early August) to work on new projects.

Psychopathia has opened a few doors, and I want to stick my foot in them (or at least a script) before they slam shut again. So I've been devoting my scant spare time to working on my two scripts. I'm really happy with how they're shaping up and can't wait to start workshopping them in the Fall. There's a good chance that one of them will be performed in Atlanta in February 2007 as a staged reading. Details will surely be provided if this comes to pass.

Billy Wilder Speaks

2006-06-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Warm up your VCRs, Tivos, what have you. Tonight at 8 (EST) Turner Classic Movies will air Billy Wilder Speaks.

Director Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum) shot hours of interviews with legendary writer/directory Billy Wilder. In 2001 he assembled this material into a three-hour documentary for British television.

Turner Classic Movies commissioned a feature-length version of the documentary, and so it fell to me to re-assemble the documentary in a 71-minute package. This "International Version" is organized by theme (rather than chronologically), is enhanced with photos, posters, scripts and other graphics to make it more friendly to a TV-viewing audience.

This is probably the only opportunity you'll have to view it. When it is released on DVD later this year, it will be the three-hour cut.

For anyone not familiar with Billy Wilder, this is a must-see documentary. He is an amazing filmmaker and storyteller and casually tosses off incredibly funny anecdotes and brilliant insights into the filmmaking process. And it includes scenes from his films (Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Double Indemnity, etc.).

It's a good sampler of Wilder's wit and wisdom... a hearty appetizer before you dig into the three-hour edition (which I'm now working on as well, fine-tuning).

After Wilder speaks, TCM will air several of his films: Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sabrina, A Foreign Affair, Sunset Blvd. and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

RAPTURE online

2006-06-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

RAPTURE, our entry into this year's 48 Hour Film Project (Atlanta) is now online at the official Illustrated FIlms website.

We won Best Acting, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Scored second place in Screenplay, Editing and Musical Score. Third place for Best Film and Direction.

If you have trouble playing it on the Illustrated Films site, look for it on iFilm and YouTube, where it has also been posted (links forthcoming).

Prelude to 6/16 screenings

2006-06-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night, Friday, June 16, Psychopathia Sexualis finally comes home (to Atlanta). It screens at 9:30pm as part of the Atlanta Film Festival.

Bob Longino of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed me for the occasion and a very nice article resulted: Exploration of Sexual Taboos Goes Its Own Way

Warning: You may have to register on the Access Atlanta website to view the article. I know, I know.

Tickets are still available HERE.

Critics' Quotes

2006-06-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

For those who don't have time to click'n'read the entire reviews, I've pulled some of the more savory selections and am presenting them here in tidy bite-size morsels.

"An impressively tense recreation of a notorious work."

-- NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"Trapping his kinky material in a cage of Victorian propriety, the writer and director, Bret Wood, mimics the visual style of silent cinema, complete with wooden tableaus and ornate intertitles."

-- Jeannette Catsoulis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Wood has a strong, atmospheric visual style--something abundantly displayed in his work as editor, graphic artist and producer on the excellent Kino silent-movie DVD sets devoted to German expressionist masters F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, as well as American greats D.W. Griffith and Erich von Stroheim. "Psychopathia," shot to look like a talkie color version of something noirish by Lang or Murnau, is as good-looking a film as its minimal budget allows."

-- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Every film festival needs this kind of ultra-indie wake-up call. Low budget. Experimental. Daring. Local filmmaker Bret Wood accepts the challenge of making a film about Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 19th-century case studies of sexual perversity -- and delivers."

-- Bob Longino, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

"A FINE ACHIEVEMENT! Not only does Wood evoke the look of the turn-of-the-century era in a believable way, but he also captures the claustrophobic mood of a repressed society...Wood injects a spooky, knowing series of dream sequences and flashbacks that recall the work of German Expressionism."

-- Eric Monder, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

"Heavily stylized...Generating suspense with similarly bleak sarcasm, Psychopathia Sexualis is part horror, part exploitation and part ensemble comedy...Wood wields derivative devices with a knowing wand."

-- Eric Kohn, NEW YORK PRESS

"Like his documentary HELL'S HIGHWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS (2003), Bret Wood's dramatically stylized visualization of cases from 19th-century Austro-German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's notorious, groundbreaking taxonomy of sexual variation is a window into bygone morals and mores....Despite the film's low budget, Wood's images are extraordinary and evocative...The atmosphere is consistently doom-haunted and depressed."

-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE MOVIE GUIDE

"The roll call of sexual perversions and fetishes promised in the title are duly displayed, but Bret Wood's film is hardly exploitation. Wood's elegantly shot period piece is ostensibly an introduction to psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's pioneering treatise on sexual deviance and perversity, illustrated by gracefully restrained set pieces that evoke the cinema of the 1920s and with dry objective medical descriptions in narrative counterpoint....the moods and moments are crafted with kinky grace."

-- Sean Axmaker, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

"One can idly imagine audience members decked out in the make-up and costumes of their favorite characters, much like devotees of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'"

-- Joe Leydon, VARIETY

"German psychoanalyst Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a pioneer in the study and treatment of abnormal sexuality, titled his 1886 book of case studies Psychopathia Sexualis, using Latin to put off prurient readers. Atlanta writer-director Bret Wood takes a reverse tack and titillates us with neo-Victorian peeks at perverts."

-- Bill Stamets, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Dutifully and handsomely crafted." -- Jay Carr, AM PM

"What Wood achieves in his arch, velvet-cushioned vignettes is a sense of the subjects being reduced to symptom and diagnosis - in the same way as were Kraft-Ebbing's patients - their pain and innocence brushed away in preference for a belief in sexual evil. Kraft-Ebbing's legacy still is with us in many ways, and while Wood makes that clear, it isn't without a healthy dose of derision."

-- John Anderson, NEW YORK NEWSDAY, AM NEW YORK

"Bodily fluids are consumed, wealthy johns are whipped and stomped by fin de siècle Bettie Pages, lavender love is variously expressed and repressed—all to the sultry sounds of somber string arrangements and scientific voiceover."

-- Melissa Anderson, TIME OUT NEW YORK

The Case Histories

2006-06-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most frequently asked questions at the New York screenings of Psychopathia was "How faithful is the film to the book?" Most people assume it is completely fictionalized, but (with the exception of the "Divertissement" section of the film, Psychopathia follows Krafft-Ebing's original text fairly closely.

Below is a breakdown of the film, by sequence, with a listing of the case history that inspired that portion of the movie. The case numbers reflect Wet Angel's book Psychopathia Sexualis: The Case Histories, as well as any unabridged edition of the book published later than 1912.

Opening Sequence: The Blood Couple
Case 48: Sadism (i) Sadism in Woman

Introduction: Vacher, the Ripper
Case 18: Sadism (a) Lust-Murder (Lust Potentiated as Cruelty, Murderous Lust Extending to Anthropophagy).

J.H./Jonathan
Case 31: Sadism (c) Injury to Women (Stabbing, Flagellation, etc.)

The Beleaguered Prostitute: Phony Priest
Sadism (b) Mutilation of Corpses*

The Beleaguered Prostitute: The Chicken Crib
Case 46: Sadism (h) Sadistic Acts with Animals

The Beleaguered Prostitute: Ceremonial Abuse
Case 33: Sadism (d) Defilement of Women

The Beleaguered Prostitute: The Captain and the Leeches
Sadism (c) Injury to Women*

The Masochist
Case 59: Masochism; Passive Flagellation and Masochism

Xavier
Case 99: Fetichism
Case 169: Antipathic Sexual Instinct Acquired Through Masturbation
Case 170: Antipathic Sexual Instinct

Divertissement: The Necrophilia Shadow Play
Case 23: Sadism (b) Mutilation of Corpses

Lydia and Annabel
Case 155: Congenital Sexual Inversion in Woman (Homosexuality)
Case 158: Congenital Sexual Inversion in Woman (Homosexuality)

* Not included in Wet Angel's condensed edition of Krafft-Ebing’s text.

PSYCHOPATHIA Reviews

2006-06-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here are links to the publications that have reviewed Psychopathia Sexualis. I've tried to include everything -- in no particular order. As we open in other cities, I'll update this entry. Once I've got some rest and had some time to organize my thoughts, I'll post a report on the New York opening.

FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Eric Monder

VARIETY, Joe Leydon

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Jeannette Catsoulis

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Michael Wilmington

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Bill Stamets

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION, Bob Longino (capsule)

TV GUIDE MOVIE GUIDE, Maitland McDonagh

BOSTON GLOBE, Ty Burr

CHICAGO READER, Jonathan Rosenbaum

NEW YORK NEWSDAY / AM NEW YORK, John Anderson

THE SEATTLE TIMES, Ted Fry

THE BOSTON HERALD, James Verniere

SEATTLE WEEKLY, Molly Lori

THE VILLAGE VOICE, Benjamin Strong

THE NEW YORK PRESS, Eric Kohn

THE NEW YORK POST, V.A. Musetto

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, Sean Axmaker

TIME OUT NEW YORK, Melissa Anderson

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

THE STRANGER (Seattle), Bradley Steinbacher (capsule)

The Night Before

2006-06-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

The night before a film opens. It's the best... and the worst. On one hand, you're excited to see your film getting national attention -- and are looking forward to seeing it with an unbiased audience that isn't related to you or didn't work on it. The poster is hanging in the lobby. The ads are in the paper. You can almost smell the popcorn.

But you can't really enjoy it. Your stomach is tied in knots. You're not sleeping. You're constantly combing the internet looking for reviews in various cities, experiencing relief and euphoria when you get one that encapsulates everything you hope a viewer will see in the film. Then you bang your head against the keyboard when a reviewer totally misses the point and dismisses it with a shrug.

I know it's bad form to respond to reviews but I am amazed at how many critics complain that Psychopathia isn't fun. Or that it isn't titillating enough. Okay, let me just say... the title is in Latin. That should be your first clue. Also, the movie is based on a Viennese medical textbook from 1886. That should be clue number two. Does every movie with sex in it have to be "fun"... or else a Sharon Stone vehicle? You think I'm kidding? Check it out...The New York Times... not "fun" enough... not "Sharon Stone" enough. Hoo boy.

But let's not dwell on the negative. Let's look at a guy like Eric Kohn of New York Press. He wrote about the film at some length and did an amazing job at characterizing the film's peculiar charm and philosophical intentions. It's the kind of review every filmmaker hopes they will get...after pouring their heart, soul and bank account into a film.

So what does a filmmaker do... at 11:00 pm... to deal with the stress? Jump in the car, drive over to Hapeville, go to the Dwarf House and order up a plate of country ham 'n' eggs and grits. You sit there on the stool and you take the good with the bad and you start scheming your next production.

Eric Kohn... if you ever come to Atlanta... you... me... the Dwarf House. I'm buying.

Profile in Creative Loafing

2006-06-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

Can't resist posting this very cool article from Creative Loafing. For those outside the metropolitan area, that's Atlanta's alternative weekly newspaper.

PEEP SHOW:
Homegrown film may be quintessential film festival fare

Curt Holman makes some great observations and offers a pretty accurate record of my worldview.... as accurate as you can get in 350 words.

Here's a taste:

Psychopathia Sexualis -- in its quirky aesthetic, its heady, kinky themes, and its shoestring budget -- may be quintessential film festival fare. The 30th Atlanta Film Festival contains dozens of similarly creative and provocative labors of love and/or obsession, and the locally produced Psychopathia Sexualis qualifies as both a representative example and one of the strangest among this year's lineup.

slings, arrows and bull's-eyes!

2006-06-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

When you make a movie and the reviews start to roll in, you brace yourself for the worst (click here if you must). But all the negative reviews in the world don't hurt a bit as long as someone out there gets the film... and embraces the film for what it was meant to be. I'm taking a few punches to the kidneys (click here to twist the knife), but it doesn't hurt a bit when I read the enthusiastic review written by Thomas Roche.

On his blog, he grabs the visitor by the collar and says, "If you pay attention to me only once in your god damned life, pay attention to me on the small matter of director Bret Wood's new film Psychopathia Sexualis. This is one of the most ambitious, disturbing and gorgeous movies I've ever seen, and its concept is as improbable as it is inspiring."

The review itself is posted at eros-zine.com

Excess bloggage

2006-06-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a few links to some of the more interesting blog-sites that have given Psychopathia its share of e-ink.

One of the first people to see the film was Tony Comstock.

It never hurts to appear in Filmmaker Magazine

The Austin Underground Film Festival

Even Germany is talking about Psychopathia at The Crime in Your Coffee. Note: This page is translated from German by an automated translator, so it's a little quirky. But I gotta say, I love the sentence, "Wood a good Händchen for new talentierte actors has." Can I put that on a poster?

fleshbot.com

RAPTURE screening and distribution panel

2006-06-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

We just got word that Rapture was selected among the top films of the recent 48 Hour Film Project in Atlanta... and will therefore be screened at the Atlanta Film Festival. The screening is Saturday June 17 at noon... at Cinefest (located in the GSU Student Center). Buy tickets here: www.brownpapertickets.com

Stick around after the screening for a panel discussion in which I will be participating: "Distribution Advice." It starts at 2:30 pm, also at the GSU Student Center. Buy those tickets here: www.brownpapertickets.com.

And don't forget Psychopathia Sexualis screening Friday June 16 at 9:30 pm. Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com.

PSYCHOPATHIA playdates

2006-06-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

THEATRICAL DATES

NEW YORK
TWO BOOTS PIONEER THEATER
Two Week Engagement begins Thursday, June 8, 2006
155 East 3rd Street (between Avenues A and B)
(212) 591-0434

CHICAGO
GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER
Opens Friday, June 9, 2006
164 North State Street
(312) 846-2600

SEATTLE
GRAND ILLUSION CINEMA
Opens Friday June 9, 2006
1403 NE 50th Street
(206) 523-3935

PORTLAND
CLINTON STREET THEATER
Opens Friday June 16, 2006
2522 SE Clinton Street
(503) 238-8899

ATLANTA
ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL
Friday June 16, 9:30 pm
Georgia State University
Speakers Auditorium
Student University Center

BOSTON
BRATTLE THEATRE
Return Engagement
July 14-17, 2006
40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square
(617) 876-6837

LOS ANGELES
LAEMMLE'S FAIRFAX 3
Opens Friday August 4, 2006
7907 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, 90048
(323) 655-4010

SAN FRANCISCO
ROXIE CINEMA
Opens August 25, 2006
3117 16th Street
(415) 863-1087

PSYCHOPATHIA in Atlanta

2006-06-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

I think we're going to get a fair amount of local press surrounding the screening of Psychopathia Sexualis at the Atlanta Film Festival. So this will be a catch-all post in which I provide links to the local ink.

Here's a link to our page at the Atlanta Film Festival. Friday, June 16 at 9:30 pm at the Speaker's Auditorium at the GSU Student University Center. It's a very large house, and it's going to be a very enthusiastic crowd... so this will be the best place to view it.

Okay... press...

The first piece to appear on the radar is an interview with producer Tracy Martin and myself, that appears in the local trade publication CinemATL

RAPTURE Production Diary

2006-06-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, this is really cool. The local trade publication Southern Screen Report assigned one of their writers, Spencer Moon, to visit the set of "Rapture," the piece I wrote and directed as part of the 48 Hour Film Project. The article has just been published in the online edition of SOUTHERN SCREEN REPORT.

Back to Church?!

2006-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Alright... I realize that those who don't know me might be confused about Rapture. Why is the guy who made Psychopathia Sexualis making a short film about a Pentecostal preacher?

Oh ye of little faith.

I don't want to go into a lengthy explanation of the film -- I'm going to post it online in a week or two, so you can see for yourself -- but suffice it to say, it does not offer a conventional view of charismatic religion. It does not make fun of the religion, either. I think it's pretty honest, actually.

However, it does make some observations about that particular denomination... for example, the way fear is used to coerce people to salvation.

And of course... I wrestle with my usual philosophical demon ... and explore the strange ways in which sexual desire manifests itself under the yoke of repression.

Nuff said.

Another 48 Hours

2006-05-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Just finished a virtually sleepless weekend of sweating, worrying, writing, discussing, directing, eating and editing. Yes, it was time for the 48 Hour Film Project. For those not familiar with the 48, it is a national competition (though we undertake it strictly as an exercise) in which teams of filmmakers make an eight-minute film within a 48-hour period. To insure that the films are created from the ground up, teams are assigned certain elements that must appear in the film: prop, line of dialogue, character and genre.

To producer Tracy Martin and myself, it's an annual test... just to make sure our production skills are staying sharp. Rather than just gathering a few friends and shooting in the backyard, we assemble a full-scale production team, and run everyone through the wringer within that two-day process. It guarantees a great-looking end result... but it infinitely complicates the process of making the film.

This year was particularly grueling, because the scale of production was bigger than ever... and we didn't go into the project with a head full of stand-by ideas. When I handed out my script Saturday -- the day of the shoot -- at 5:00 am, it was... one might say... spare. Heads were scratched... looks were exchanged. "This is it?" was asked. I would mutter an excuse and duck out... to find a secluded spot and curl into a fetal position.

Back it up a minute. Let me fill in a few details. We're allowed to secure a location in advance of the Friday 7:00 pm starting gun. Tracy was scouring the area for a nice large location with lots of visual possibilities. For a while it looked like we were shooting in a jail/prison... but that space was not available at the time of our shoot. Then Tracy called and said, "I got a friend who has a church. Do you want to just shoot there?"

"A friend who has a church." How does she do these things? Who does she NOT know in this town? I shouted "Sold!" and the first piece of the puzzle fell into place. Between that point and the starting gun, I tried to think churchy thoughts... mentally revisiting the Pentecostal services of my childhood (Chattanooga's Woodmore Church of God, where my mother was the organist).

I wanted to explore the idea of fear and desire... two huge ingredients of a charismatic church service.

I re-read some of my treasured Jack T. Chick comics. Those not familiar with Chick need to get their souls to his website pronto: Chick Publications. My personal faves are: Somebody Loves Me, A Demon's Nightmare, and Bewitched?. Then I re-watched some of my favorite church-themed films, those created for the ministries of Estus Pirkle: The Burning Hell and If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?. They, more than anything else, influenced my mind on that fateful weekend. Let me just pause to say the Estus Pirkle films are SUBLIME, especially if you grew up in that kind of environment. I tried to watch Marjoe again, but UPS didn't get it here fast enough. Anyway, enough backstory. I had some cultural references... the cauldron was starting to bubble... but it didn't have time to cook.

My first reaction, when we drew the genre "martial arts," was sheer panic. But upon a little meditation, and some consultation of reference guides as to what exactly "martial arts" means... it actually helped bring a story into focus. I didn't want to make a karate movie, that much was obvious... so I thought back on some of my favorite Honk Kong films -- such as Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain. These are martial arts films, but with a more spiritual foundation (Buddhism). And, since my son is a Star Wars fanatic, I thought about the Jedi -- that they are true martial artists because their powers lie in a mixture of spiritual centeredness, mind-control and precise physical combat skills. Reverend Horace Lovejoy... Jedi. It started to click...

The starting gun sounded.

I may not have had a script, but I had something even more valuable... the confidence of an extremely talented cast and crew. They had faith that this peculiar sketch of a screenplay might work. Others didn't bother reading the script. They just went with it. Everyone threw in their own ideas.

Saturday around 7:30, Bruce Bennett showed up with audio files of the music he had prepared with Paul Mercer. He arrived in his 1970 GTO. Pam and Erica (makeup team) slapped some brylcreem on his head, Sean (costume guy) threw a mechanic's shirt on him, and Bruce made his screen debut (and so did the GTO).

The cast was amazing. They totally saved the day. Anne Towns stars as Hope (one thing I was clinging to at that moment), a frazzled mom who is taking her child (Michael DiNardo) to church. She is received by two friends of hers from the high school days: Faith (Sarah Falkenburg) and Vanessa (Shelby Hofer). They sit in on a sermon by the visiting evangelist Reverend Lovejoy (Daniel Burnley). But then we filled the congregation with a supporting cast of local actors. I've worked with most of them before, and I gotta say, they are dedicated, hard-working, talented and are always popping with great ideas and instincts... even when they've been sitting around for nine hours... make that eleven hours... waiting to be called. But when the altar call came... they responded. Permit me to offer special thanks to three very talented, always reliable actors whom I've worked with in the past: Jim Adams, David Doerrier and Sally Shornick. They gave me their day, they shared their talents. But because of the unpredictable nature of the shoot... and the equally unpredictable variables of editing... they are virtually unseen in the film. I mean, you see them... but only their backs and shoulders. I know... actors are used to being cut out of films... but I am particularly sorry that their roles were diminished... because it was such a challenging day. It was primarily my own fault for not better planning the shots in relation to the editing to happen later. Please work with me again.

But... they did get to listen to a rousing sermon by Daniel Burnley. In the script, it just said, "SERMON" and "ALTAR CALL." I took this to Daniel. He offered me a kindly smile... took up his Bible in one hand... raised a handkerchief in the other... and all heaven broke loose.

Comstock Films on PSYCHOPATHIA

2006-05-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

PSYCHOPATHIA is trickling out into the blogosphere. On Thursday, May 18, Tony Comstock posted an insightful essay about the film at Tony Comstock's Blog.

After he wrote the piece, Tony and I talked about PSYCHOPATHIA at some length, and discussed the degree to which the Victorian mindset (especially in its view of heterosexual reproduction-oriented sexuality) persists today... in politics and to some degree in our own minds.

Be sure to check out the site for Tony's company, Comstock Films. Tony has made (and continues to make) a series of artful yet provocative films that challenge the conventional represenatations of sex on screen.