Why Do this now?
As part of the big website overhaul that began earlier in the year, I returned to several older posts that I felt deserved more attention. Thanks to Google Analytics, I systematically targeted sections of my site that gain the most traffic. I want to be sure my visitors get a premium experience but there’s a natural inconsistency over a 16-year period of blogging.
Aside from vacillating between highly technical and lengthy articles that belong in American Cinematographer Magazine to pictorial microblogs, there are large swings both directions. On the purely technical side, this is my third major overhaul since migrating into the WordPress ecosystem and there are specific html formatting requirements for each build. As much as I’d love to fix every post on my site, that would take a lot of effort and most are essentially invisible.
Looking at the image above genuinely motivates me to fix all the errors on my site. Perhaps I will slowly carve out the time to do that, but I’m trying to be efficient. Even with Claude’s help, it’s still time that could be spent elsewhere. Thankfully, as a nostalgic person, I’ve enjoyed re-reading and updating these old posts. I’d love to hear any feedback both positive and negative so I don’t feel like this is a waste of energy.
Peter Bogdanovich’s Final Film
The biggest undertaking was consolidating six separate posts about The Great Buster into one definitive piece. What began as scattered festival announcements is now a proper behind-the-scenes account of shooting Peter Bogdanovich’s final film. I share stories about visiting Mel Brooks’s office and answering his question about the origins of my name, Quentin Tarantino giving me notes on my framing inside of his personal theater, and my joy learning we’d won the Venice Classics Award for Best Documentary on Cinema.
They shoot naked, don’t they?
One of the more unique experiences in my career had to be shooting the nudist feature comedy, Act Naturally. Historically, these entries have racked up the most views and I did another pass on previous posts to create the definitive New Yorker-esque trilogy. It covers everything from the logistical challenges of filming at a nudist resort with limited resources to the camaraderie that develops when your cast and crew remove their clothes on day one.
My Music-Video Directorial Debut
I revisited this post for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, it’s my first (and only) music video as director. When I first blogged about it, I didn’t have time to give it the proper attention it warranted because of our short turn-around. Secondly, the visuals serve as a time capsule into Harry’s old life as we shot inside of his Altadena home that didn’t survive the tragic fires last January. Thirdly, thanks to his immense talent, Harry’s audience has grown exponentially and the video never found the audience I feel it deserves. Perhaps we can change that and people will see that Harry is not only the best freestyle rapper alive, he deserves a listen on written tracks as well.
Yes, You may touch the Sculptures
I expanded my post on Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, the Netflix documentary that I shot concurrently with The Great Buster. Aside from a great trip to Yale and interesting interviews with George DiCaprio in Silverlake, the standout experience came when Glenn Bray encouraged me to take time and touch Szukalski’s sculptures before filming them. Having this physical connection enriched my shooting the only practical sculpture footage in the entire film (everything else is CG).
A Spec Music Video that went viral
The post on Ed Sheeran’s “Kiss Me” is noteworthy because I tried to convince writer/director Jarod Einsohn that it was a waste of our time to make a spec video for a prominent artist. 52 million YouTube views later, I think it’s safe to say that I was wrong.
Conclusion
One element that I find particularly interesting in looking back to previous jobs are the circumstances and connections that lead to booking the gig. Whenever I add somebody new to my address book, I add the details or our meeting in the notes section. It offers really great trivia years later.
What would you like to see in future posts? My next addition will focus on my memorable days with David Crosby and Cameron Crowe on A.J. Eaton’s acclaimed documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.