January 29, 2010

Salinger's Dead

Two excerpts from the New York Times editorial:

"The last, long stage of J. D. Salinger’s life — the unpublishing of himself — is now over. It began, more or less, when he moved to Cornish, N.H., in 1953, two years after “The Catcher in the Rye” came out. And it ended with his death this week at the age of 91."

"It remains to be seen whether death will now publish Mr. Salinger — whether there is an archive of his later life’s work waiting to be revealed. There was a purity in Mr. Salinger’s separation from the world, whatever its motives, whatever his character. His half-century of solitude and silence was a creative act in itself, requiring extraordinary force of will. "

January 25, 2010

5 Dangerous Things

While doing some research for what will hopefully become an upcoming doc, I came across a great little TED University video by Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School called: Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. In case you don't have time to watch the video they are...

1. Play With Fire
2. Own a Pocket Knife
3. Throw a Spear
4. Deconstruct Appliances
5. (a two-parter) a) Break the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
b.) Drive a Car

I'm pretty sure I did all of these things between the ages of 3 and 10. Loved the quote toward the end of the video: "Driving a car is a really empowering act for a young child."

January 21, 2010

Finding The Story

I know it's been a while, but the doc I've been working on is finally coming together. (The delay has more to do with the life of our subject, Harvey Pollock, and a turn of events in his life that changed the direction of the film, than it does with the procrastination of filmmakers.) It's been a lot of fun to work with our editor, (via email and ftp server), watching how the scenes come together.

A lot of people have asked me how you write a documentary, and how is it different than writing a screenplay? And the best way I've been able to describe it is that you're attempting to find the story rather than create it.