Brad here.
I have never been to the northeast.
DC Shorts accepted “It’s in the P-I” and they offered to put me up for the extent of the festival.
To keep myself busy I have decided to videoblog the experience.
I have decided to use two different websites to host the content:
and youtube:
Tags: film festival, It's in the P-I, Video, videoblog, youtube
Thank you for your entry to the 2009 DC Shorts Film Festival. This year,
we have seen an incredible growth in interest in our festival –
receiving more than 680 films. This made decision-making to fill the
final slots even more difficult.We would like to CONGRATULATE YOU — your entry is an official selection
for the 2009 competition!
Tags: Common Language Project, Documentary, Film, It's in the P-I
at The Stranger gave us our short It’s in the P-I its first review and surprisingly it was good!
…most interestingly, an exploration of the end of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer through the words of its former staffers.
and then it continues in true Stranger fashion:
Making it all really, truly worthwhile: Love You More, a hot, hot short about young love, hasty sex, and the music of the Buzzcocks.
Tags: Brad, Common Language Project, Documentary, film festival, International Documentary Challenge, It's in the P-I, Morgan
So I believe it was our intention to blog quite a bit more concerning this whole five day International Documentary Film Challenge thing we just got through doing. Not to make excuses, but shit got drastic. The movie was good enough that we put more time in energy into it than it probably warranted. The final title was “Its in the PI.” It concerns itself with the plight of Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer, Seattle’s oldest daily newspaper. It came out much better then anything else I have worked on that could call itself nonfiction, but it took a toll on all of us. I was glad to work within this new entity “the Something Factory.” It is the melding of the Common Language Project, The Last Quest and some of our other awesomely talented friends. It was great to work with people who put as much passionate obsession into their work as I do. Here is the logo I created to go at the end of the credits:
So anyways I am posting this on the blog to let you know why nothing was posted for the last few days and to also let you know that Morgan and I are going to do some video podcasts for ya’all in the next few days doing a breakdown of a scene from the movie.
Alright well it is 4:15am and I go now to be unconscious.
Tags: Brad, Common Language Project, International Documentary Challenge, Morgan, Video
Dear beautiful co-workers,
We got a ton of great footage today, I really think we can make a great movie in the time that we have. We have a totally strong start. Here is what I suspect we need before anything else happens:
Sullivan St @ 10am.
Brad, Jessica, Sarah, Alex, Morgan, Peder, (Katie and Cassidy also if they want) for meeting on the thesis of the film. We will be trying to figure out one sentence that sums the film up, what it’s about, what we are trying to say. It can be a statement or a question. As producer I need this meeting so I know where to ask people to help so I can be organized and efficient. As editor I need this to provide help with the textual narrative of the film.
Here are some possible examples:
Print newspapers are dying and this is important because print journalism is important to society.
People that got into the newspaper business are foolish because they have let their business fail.
All these people that have given their lives for print journalism are now at a total loss because the PI is going out of business.
Seattle and the PI are linked, and now that the PI is closing, Seattle is losing something special.
What does it matter that the PI is closed?
What effect does the PI closing have on the media landscape?
We need a statement that we all agree on so we can be on the same page making the same movie and so we can have a coherent plan of attack from here on out.
Our statement, while not only being pragmatic in terms of direction, cohesion and man hours will also make sure we stay grounded in a story that “Focuses on stories of past events and/or people, ” that maintains the theme of Fear / Hope. Sorry if I sound paranoid but I think this can really help us focus our energies.
Also I hope to come out with a more nailed down schedule for the rest of the doc challenge.
Another important shoot coming up tomorrow: Printing press in Everett. There are three possibilities. The first is that Alex goes alone (Shooter, Interviewer, Sound), the second that Alex (Sound and Interviewer) and Katie (Shooter) go together, the last is that three people can go and we have Alex (Interviewer), Katie (Shooter) and Kelsey (Sound) go to get the shots and interviews we need.
I will let people know ASAP when I figure out how this is going to go down exactly.
If either of these is not OK, just let me know and I’ll reschedule for some other time.
Love,
Morgan
Dear reader,
The Last Quest has entered the International Documentary Challenge with the members of the Common Language Project.
We brainstormed on Monday about the possible ideas we had for the competition. Here are the genres they provide and our top candidates:
1st person:
The story of my parent’s relationship. It is quite a touching story, filled with thrills and chills. To sum it up they have been married for 30 years and still make out all the time. It was love at first sight but my mom was married and my dad didn’t want to have even a steady girlfriend.
Art
Our friend Cat knows a guy that is involved with a group that does things like:
1) Get these huge machines from Boeing that spit electricity at things at amazing voltage.
2) Shoot this electricity at quarters.
3) Give these shrunken weirdo electricity quarters to friends.
Biography / Character Study
Aurthur Wright has a public access show about getting healthy. He works out for the first 1/2 of the show and then cooks a delicious healthy mean for the second half of his show. He also weighs 350 lbs, is active in the Black Vietnam Vet community and has had a tracheotomy.
Experimental
Janet also has a public access show. Her story is twisted and crazy and wonderful. She used to export Washington apples to Japan from the Bahamas. She is now a private dectective and she describes her clients are “eccentric.” We were going to interview her about her life and then make a video mosaic similar to The Tracy Fragments.
Historical
Our angle to this was a history of a relationship. We were going to use my parents again.
Music
“Morgan proposes to Carolyn Mark.” It’s true, I love her. To the point where I would go ask her to marry me. In Canada. While someone was filming it. Actually I think that’s the only way I could get up the nerve to do it.
Nature
Had you any idea there was a group of people that got together to “fancy guinea pigs?” Katie did.
Social Issue / Political
We were going to do a story about the PI closing. It is going out of buisness in the next week or so.
Sports
We were going to make a documentary about Bike Jousting.
They give you two genres (pick one), and a theme that you have about 5 days to make a 4 – 7 minute documentarty about. We drew Musical and Historical. The theme is Fear / Hope.
Thankfully we decided not to drive to Cananda. And I don’t have to ruin my life and ask Ms. Mark to marry me, out of the blue, with no hope of her saying yes, pissing off the girl I’m dating and bringing my tender ego (recently bolstered by exercising and heavy vitamin intake) to new and exciting lows.
We also decided not to do the history of my parents relationship. The PI story was just too hot and timely. And also four of the people we are working with are or have been journalists and they feel strongly about the topic.
So they went today and had three half hour long amazing interviews. The rest of it might be a little difficult to come together, I’m editing and producing this one, so I’ll give you an update when I have one…
Love,
Morgan
Tags: Brad, Brainstorm, Common Language Project, Documentary, Film, Genre, International Documentary Challenge, Morgan, Video
Right now I am capturing footage I took while we were shooting The Hot Dog Cycle. It is a trip to see all of these people who helped us do something very important to us at one time. Making films is something I love so much because it brings people together who have often completely disparate lives and puts all their collective energy towards a common goal that sometimes seems unattainable. Making movies is really about momentum and collective inertia. I love all of these faces looking awkwardly at the camera as I ask them stilted questions about how it’s going or how they are feeling. The Hot Dog Cycle was an amazing experience and has turned into a pretty good film at the end of all our 9 months worth of work. I hope a lot of people see it. Our SIFF and STIFF entries are in so lets hope one of those festivals gives us an opening here in Seattle.
The reason I am capturing this footage is for the DVD we are making and to post on this blog so check back often to see what the dealio is with the Last Quest blog.
Tags: Behind the Scenes, Brad, Production Notes, The Hot Dog Cycle
This is Brad here to say hello! So the site is up there are sections still under construction but for the most part the framework is up and we are here to stay. The Last Quest Blog will hopefully be a good place for fellow film makers and fans of the film making process to see how a group of people in Seattle have figured out how to make images move.
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