Livin' La Soufriere

I’m not sure why a short Werner Herzog documentary from 1977 has been so ingrained in my brain this week, but I think it has something to do with flexibility. La Soufriere chronicles a community living in wait of an impending volcanic explosion. Herzog and his crew interview the stragglers, those who have refused to evacuate because of foolish bravery or morbid surrender.

The magic of the film is its tone, which is sharply reversed towards the end of the film. I won’t spoil the ending, but the film’s plot developments show off Herzog’s stubborn refusal to give up on a picture. The man wrangles a story and a theme out of everything he comes across.

This kind of flexibility is something that’s been a bit of a theme this year for Wonder Mill. We’ve felt convicted to maintain an amorphous form, to wear the dexterous feet of the high-climbing deer of Psalm 18.

Last month, we officially decided to, at this time, turn down an offer from a DVD distribution company that was interested in giving A Genesis Found wider exposure. After some deliberation, we decided that, despite the company being very friendly and gracious, we couldn’t afford, as an organization, to have one of our films locked into a contract for 5 years. We wanted the elbow room that the ever-changing landscape of modern digital film distribution provides.

Just this past weekend, we had to switch gears on the N3rd side of things, as we learned we would not be able to self-publish the film in a two-disc DVD set. After an hour of late-night discouragement on my part, we were able to quickly make a handful of decisions and cuts and by Monday morning, had a full-steam-ahead plan for a one disc edition of the DVD. By having a clear idea of what is best for 1.) the film, 2.) the audience experience, and 3.) our organization, we changed course without having a semblance of a contingency.

Now, it sounds trite to compare artistic improvisation of the Herzog variety with administrative shuffling, but I’m encouraged by Wonder Mill’s decisions lately. If you can be flexible in house-keeping, that attitude will trickle into every other activity in the organization, be it writing, producing, or directing.

Carrying on flexibly - unsure if the volcano is about to burst - seems to be the best way to operate in a heavily digital environment. Hopefully we can continue this immediate, dexterous operation in all of our future work.

The Nocturnal Third is scheduled to be sent to proof this Tuesday, July 5th. Once we have our stock ordered, it will be a mere few weeks before we have a premiere scheduled. The movie might see the light of day within the next month. But, of course- part of being flexible is not making promises. After all, when money is missing, time is the only key to quality.

It seems La Soufriere is currently available to steal on YouTube. Take advantage and treat yourself.

-Ben Stark
Writer/Director, The Nocturnal Third

30 Years of Making It Up As He Goes

I keep telling my wife to keep a mental tally of all the things I keep swearing I'll never do again on another production. Mixing all the sound on The Nocturnal Third was hard, time-consuming, and took discipline, but honestly- I think I could do it again if I didn't have to do it after hours. It's one of those things that can be very discouraging if your mental energy has been sapped by a day job and the minutiae of every-day life. It's tough grunt work (as far as air conditioned computer-driven tasks go), but it is still immediately rewarding and a direct storytelling process.

Editing a "making of" featurette for your own film, however, is both mentally taxing ("Who's actually going to watch this anyway?") as well as tedious and time-consuming, especially when you're a nit-picker. Thankfully, producer Lee wrote the script for the "making of" doc, titled Do What You Can With What You Have. The hard part of the process is looking back at a project that I'm still working on, albeit in its closing stages. It doesn't feel worthy of nostalgia just yet, but with this whole day-and-date experiment, I'll just have to push that out of my psyche. The most esteem-damaging part of the process is seeing myself in the throes of production - out of shape, tired, unkempt, and stressed. It reminds me a lot of looking in the mirror this morning... Showering isn't, like, a mandatory thing, right? It's more like flossing, right? Right? Say what? Oh, no.

As I write this, my final cut of Do What You Can... is compressing for producer review.

Looking beyond this tiny world of my keyboard, my mac, and me, I see that today, my favorite movie of all time turns 30. On this day in 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released for the world to consume. I watch Raiders several times a year, and it never loses its luster.

Raiders is a big reason I'm doing what I'm doing this very second, in so much as I get an idea for a new movie every time I watch it. It just gives me the itch. I'll be honest and say that Jurassic Park and Back to the Future were bigger catalysts for my childhood desire to make movies, but Raiders is somehow more perfect, more watchable.

Note that when I say perfect, it is a completely subjective term. There exist many more expertly put-together films than Raiders, with smoother shots, better effects, and cleaner sound. That said, Raiders is more perfect than these movies for reasons I cannot perfectly articulate. Maybe it has something to do with the organic texture of the movie; it feels real and worn down. Perhaps it's the script, which refracts its source material so well that it spawns something new entirely. Whatever the elusive reason, it must be a strong one, as it doesn't overcome the movie's rough edges, but rather redeems them and makes them part of the greater whole.

Some would respect the movie as fine "trash", but I would disagree, and put Raiders of the Lost Ark above any socially conscious melodrama. Raiders defines cinema, an art form that thrives on behavior. To go on a limb while stealing an entry from the Werner Herzog glossary, there is more "ecstatic truth" in Raiders of the Lost Ark than in any weepy, any art-house indie, and any high gloss Oscar bait.

Happy birthday, Raiders of the Lost Ark - a movie greater than its franchise, greater than its inspirations, greater than its makers. That said: thank you Lucas, Spielberg, Marshall, Allen, Ford, Kaufman, Kasdan, and Williams for making something truly special.

Welcome to Stafford Stoneworks

Of Sound Mind

Spending a lot of time on the N3rd end of things this weekend to revise sound stuff. Tedious, but ultimately, rewarding!

While the computer renders, here are some of my favorite uses of sound design in movies:

Let the Right One In - This Swedish vampire thriller puts a lot of its stock in off-screen terror, keeping many of its set-ups wide and ambiguous, with intricate, well-paced, and terrifying sound.

Star Wars - This is a no-brainer, as the world is introduced to sound maestro Ben Burtt, and we find an all-new universe of sounds no one had ever heard before. Say what you will about this whole series, but the wide array of new and rich sounds living in Lucas' Star Wars universe is mind-blowing.

Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker are renowned for their unorthodox and dynamic pursuit of matching sound and image. The boxing scenes in Raging Bull are full of hard impact, gut-wrenching noises that are not common to a box ring, but are essential for cinema.

Jurassic Park - Another classic. While they may or not be biologically accurate, the sounds of the dinosaurs in Spielberg's 1993 adventure just feel right, don't they?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers '78 - There is a very specific sounds that the "body snatched" use to single out the unsnatched, and it's really hard to convey without spoiling the joy of experiencing them for the first time.

Into The Future

Oops, I already slipped.

Progress Report: Danielle and Lee (the producers) have an almost-finished copy of the film to review. We're still tweaking score for two scenes, and I'm going to do one more overall sound polish, but it's very close to being an actual movie. I'd even be so bold as to say it IS an actual movie. No celebrating yet, though.

After the premiere, I'm planning on amping up my movie-watching. Here are a few marathons I've been considering, based on categories I've been wanting to explore further for years:

BERGMANIA
Wild Strawberries
Persona
Through A Glass Darkly
Smiles of a Summer Night

CARPOCALYPSE
The Driver
Vanishing Point
Two Lane Blacktop
Thunder Road

SHOESTRING SCI FI
Pi
Scanners
Alphaville
Phase IV

SCREWBALLIN'
My Man Godfrey
Bringing Up Baby
Hail the Conquering Hero
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

-Ben

More Monster

Here's another, of the little guy in full action. One of our main influences was John Carpenter's The Thing. Final animation and overall design was by lead actor Kevin Maggard.

The Monster

So here's a tiny look at a frame of N3rd's dream sequence animation. This has not been comped into its scene.