Quotable Thursday | A Thin Line

"There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt."
Erma Bombeck

(Note: You probably wouldn't think a setting of a comic strip could survive in a Soviet prison camp. But as Ms. Bombeck so kindly points out, comedy and tragedy are close relatives. So, for those of you who missed the latest installment of the UNDER JAKOB'S LADDER comic strip -- #4 to be exact -- please join Jakob, Yasha, and the prisoners... Click here to view the comic strip.)

[Photo of masks courtesy of Phil W. Shirley]

Redemptive Storyteller Film Award

Well, folks...

We are pleased to let you know that our upcoming feature film, UNDER JAKOB'S LADDER, has won a Redemptive Storyteller Award! The award ceremony will be held in November at the Redemptive Film Festival in Virginia Beach, VA.

The name of the award fits in pretty well with the nature of our film; as it (the movie) relates to forgiveness and reconciliation!

You can see what the award looks like in the photo. (No, we did not get three awards. Just one. And no, we don't actually have the award yet since the award ceremony isn't until November.)

More details about the film festival to follow the closer we get to the event...

Click here to our press release...

Quotable Thursday | Film is Like Music

"A film is -- or should be -- more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."
-- Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)

[Photo courtesy of minds-eye]

Why Call it a Movie Trailer?

Did you ever wonder why we refer to movie trailers as "trailers"?

A trailer is supposed to "trail" things, right? Like the trailer trails behind the truck. (Try saying that five times fast!) So, isn't it kinda odd to say we watch movie trailers BEFORE the feature movie begins?

So... then, why do we call it a movie trailer?

Here's what we dug up. Apparently, back in 1966, an executive at Paramount told the L.A. Times this story about the "first trailer" which screened at a New York amusement park in 1912:

"One of the concessions hung up a white sheet and showed the serial 'The Adventures of Kathlyn.' At the end of the reel Kathlyn was thrown in the lion's den. After this 'trailed' a piece of film asking 'Does she escape the lion's pit? See next week's thrilling chapter!' Hence, the word 'trailer,' an advertisement for a coming picture."

Of course, that would work very well for a serial cliffhanger.

But as history moves on, trailers became useful to more than just for those types of movies. In essence, a trailer is just an advertisement. And movie theatres (as well as the studios) wanted people to actually watch the trailers.

That's when some brilliant entrepreneur must have realized that people tend to leave once the movie is over. "Hey, the movie's done. Time to go!"

However, put the movie trailer BEFORE the movie... now you have an audience.

Think about it. Would you sit AFTER the movie's done to watch a bunch of movie trailers? Nah, you got more important things to do. On the other hand, how often have you allowed yourself to sit through movie trailers (often for movies you don't really care to see) just because you're forced to wait to watch the newest Lord of the Rings movie? You may not like it, but you'll wait.

P.S. Sometimes movie trailers are called "previews", or "coming attractions". Both of those seem to make a lot of sense. But still the name "trailer" has stuck. Really, when was the last time you asked a friend, "Did you see the preview on the internet for the new [FILL IN THE BLANK] movie?!" Probably not. Probably you called it a movie trailer... like everybody else.

[Photo courtesy of chidorian]

Quotable Thursday | Opening New Doors

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
-- Walt Disney (1901-1966)

[Photo courtesy of Conductive]

Set up and Payoff

Movies are full of them... the setup and the payoff.

It's the part in a film that introduces a person (or object or piece of information) that seems to have little significance to the story. The audience shouldn't see it coming, yet it is significant enough so that the audience will remember it. That's the setup.

The payoff happens when that seemingly insignificant information becomes a very important plot point.

In The Wizard of Oz (1939), think of how the ruby slippers are set up as being very important. The reason originally given by Glinda to Dorothy is that if she takes the slippers off, she'll "be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch of the West." However, by the end of movie, Dorothy finds that these same ruby slippers are the key to getting her back to Kansas! There's your payoff.

Another classic case in point: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Remember the scene when Jack Nicholson is showing off to the other guys in the psychiatric institute? He boasts that he can lift this huge marble water fountain. Of course, he can't; it's too heavy. On first viewing, it just seems like a great little scene meant to show the sheer audacity of the Jack Nicholson character. However, it's really meant to be a setup.

Now to the very end of the movie, when the big Native American patient escapes from the asylum... How? By lifting that same marble water fountain (the one that wouldn't budge for Jack Nicholson). But this guy not only can lift the thing, he throws it through a window and is able to escape from the asylum.

What if this final scene hadn't been set up with that earlier scene? Well, we wouldn't have been amazed at the sheer strength of the guy. (When Jack tried, we realized how heavy the thing was.)

For more on setups and payoffs, try reading these:
Plants and Payoffs
Set Up and Payoff

Quotable Thursdays

We're planning to have a regular feature on this blog that has to do with quotes and quotations. Hence "Quotable Thursdays".

So, to kick it off, here are some quotes on... well, quotes...

And why not begin with the oft-quoted Ben Franklin! [pictured right]

"I have heard that nothing gives an Author so great Pleasure, as to find his Works respectfully quoted by other learned Authors." -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself." -- Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

"A proper collection of quotations is the whole world digested." -- Terri Guillemets

"People will accept your idea much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first." -- David H. Comins

A Little Banjo Music

Yesterday was Labor Day. Which means we had to spend at least part of the day doing some sort of labor, right?

How about a little work in the recording studio... In this case, recording a little music with "Jed" and his banjo... for one of the film projects we're working on.



How did you spend your Labor Day weekend?

Straying from the Truth

Some more thoughts on artifice and truth. (This post is really a continuation of last week's post.)

Screenwriter William Goldman, in his book Which Lie Did I Tell, says: "What is genuinely heroic in life many not work for film. It simply, as they say, won't shoot." Goldman goes on to tell a story how he personally once saved a kid from drowning. "In real life it was extraordinary. On film, nothing." (p.80-83)

In his book, he then recounts how he came across a heart-chilling true story of the heroic John Henry Patterson -- a man who hunted down and killed two man-eating lions in East Africa. "It took him nine months, but he got the first [lion]."

(Look at the photo... That's one of the lions.)

Then, after patiently waiting up in a tree, Patterson got the second lion.

What kind of movie would that have been? As Goldman put it: "For nine months he sits in a tree? Wow. For nine months, his plans mostly suck? Whoopee. For nine months he fails?"

In movie-making, sometimes you have to stray from the truth a bit. Shrink a time line. Meld several people into one character. Add a character to help move the story along.

But the key is this; you also need to remain true to the essence of the historical event or person. If you as the filmmaker can do that, than the movie based-on-a-true- story -- although you may have strayed from the truth -- will be truthful in the way that art is truthful.

(By the way, that's why historical movies tend to use the term "based" on a true story. As opposed to proclaiming: "A true story" or "This movie is 100% accurate in its historical depictions. Learn your history from us!")