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Archive | April, 2009
Moon River & Cowboy Dreams: The 2009 UNA George Lindsey Film Festival – Feature
27 AprA film festival should always be seen as a balance of education and networking. Within the auspice of the University Of Alabama, George Lindsey, best known for his role in the revered “Andy Griffith Show”, lent his name to the annual film fete to better the perspective of would-be filmmakers and students in their perception of the vision of Old Hollywood in the midstate town of Florence.
Shorts have at times become a lost art but situated within the structure of the town, the venues, rich in nostalgic history, show a diversity. “Proud Izza” has elements of David Lynch but with a hopeful and repressed anxiety as a woman searches for life. “Outsource” envisions a THX-type society that is more inundated with the isolation of an inner world where emotions can be deadly using lower grade but highly reflective and inventive effects. In the student narrative shorts, “Gaining Ground” from Germany uses subtle but effective acting to highlight the trials and tribulations of a young and conflicted couple while “The Miracle” brings into focus the dream world of a girl who is deflected by other people’s expectations.
The anticipated picture of the festival was “How To Be” starring recently fame surrounded Robert Pattinson of “Twilight”. In this film, he plays a young man conflicted on the strife of what he needs to become. He hires a famous psychologist to make him more normal but with ironic results. The narative is very didactic but shows an interesting betrayal of a youth steeped in self doubt.
The honorees at the festival definitely come with a definitive manner to their performances and a set history. For a panel discussion, Rance Howard, saddled in a white cowboy hat, talked about his initial acting days in western series such as “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza”. In the early days, he sometimes brought his young sons, Clint & Ron to the set to watch him work. Rance can be credited for writing “Andy Of Mayberry” starring his friends Andy Griffith and George Lindsey with the role of Opie, played by none other than his son Ron. As the years went on, he continued to act on such series as “The Waltons”. In the late 70s, Ron told Roger Corman that he wanted to direct a film. When told he had to make it for a budget, Ron, according to Rance, went to his father and asked him to write it with him. The film became “Grand Theft Auto”. Since then Ron has put his father in every single one of his films including the upcoming Tom Hanks’ film “Angels & Demons” which is a prequel to “The DaVinci Code”.
The other honoree Lee Majors, known to most as “The Six Million Dollar Man”, spoke at the Awards Show at UNA about the essence of filmmaking and locations in his signature style as the emcee, Steve Richarson, a local musician and filmmaker, played on.
The hangouts and haunts of the festival create a balance to the life that the area brings. Opening night was held at On The Rocks, a dual-level bar where networking and saddling up to the bar with a Bud fulfills the vision whereas Closing Night reveled in the essence of Cypress Moon Studios, a local production outfit along the Tennessee River that was formerly a recording studio where many famous musicians including Julian Lennon wrote some of their songs. This night saw The Rhythm Aces jamming out as the velvet curtains swayed and the draft of swooned the night with tales of film financing and production adventures.
The integration of the school within the structure of the festival also allowed for a centralized perception of the discussion. Serving on one of the panels deemed “The Critic’s Table” along with native Florence critic Jonathan Rosenbaum and moderated by Dr. Will Verone, film professor at UNA, the friendly volley between practical and theoretical concerns of filmmaking were debated versus the “ideal” of what should be being made. The congruence and commerce of these situated obstacles created great questions from attendees both young and old making the event a remarkably interactive public forum.
The UNA/George Lindsey Film Festival offered a balance of old and new school perceptions of filmmaking. While the shorts programs were exceptionally diverse, the feature structure, albeit with potential, has room for improvement despite a very powerful centerpiece in terms of commerce and culture in the guise of “How To Be”. Overall, the exceptional possibilities relied on within the discussions and the tributes elevated the community aspect of the event which speaks well for years to come.
Upping The Heat: NBC Summer Press Day 2009
26 AprWithin the structure of the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena (formerly the Ritz Carlton), the brief interlude of the 2009 NBC Summer Press Day begins highlighting elements across NBC’s arsenal from USA to Bravo to Oxygen to NBC Proper.
Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood This second season of the reality show on Oxygen presupposes the different aspects in the lives of two highly focused couple. The balance now becomes between juxtaposing work and the aspects of having two kids under two. Dean [McDermott, Tori's husband] says that having kids keep you busy. He used to be toasting to the fact that they had sex six times a day. Now it’s different. Tori simply says they never get any sleep, like any normal parents. In terms of her dealing with a second child: “It gets easier in a sense. With Liam [her firstborn], I thought he would break. You take more chances with the second one.” She also dispels the rumors about the selling of her father’s estate, one of the biggest in Los Angeles: “That’s another perception. I didn’t grow up in that house. I moved there when I was 17 and moved out when I was 19. I think it is great that [my mom] is selling it.” As far as the current status of her life, Tori says that she is just trying to juggle with one side being a stay-at-home mom and the other side her business interests. She sums it up: “It is about making everybody and me happy at the same time”. Dean backs her up: “We are partners and get into everything together. She wears the hose in the family. I just do all the guy stuff”.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent On USA, the big news of late has been the integration in Season Two of actor Jeff Goldblum as a new detective. Jeff’s perception is that right now on the date, they have shot seven of eight scripts. “We don’t find out a lot about my backstory,” he explains. “There is a gloom to the way I go about things.” His belief is that it is about rationing. Most recently in the perception of a cop he was in the short lived NBC series “Raines”. Here, on “Criminal Intent”, he got to play the piano. His co-star Vincent D’Onofrio jokes that he didn’t have his harmonica. Jeff’s perception is perhaps they will have Vincent singing in the shower at some point. In response to seeing a difference in his character in terms of perception of family, D’Onofrio responds: “It gets very intense. There is no back to personal [setting] this season. The thing is to go back to the early years when Goren was completely fixated on the job. We know that he is strange. He is that character again.” D’Onofrio follows this up saying that he is very happy with his character in reference to the writing. In relation if he D’Onofrio will be seen together in scenes onscreen, Goldblum jokes that “this is the most time we’ve spent together” aside from doing their Super Bowl spot which was improvised. In terms of bringing that thought to the show, Goldblum delivers in deadpan: “We offer a cornacopia of things and then they pick. We offer them a fruit plate.” In response to the “Characters Welcome” moniker of USA Network, Goldblum jokes that he “has a map on my door that says ‘not unwelcome’”. Producer Peter Jankowski concludes addressing the aspect of writing on the show: “I look at these shows as a diagnosis for mythology. You can’t see ‘The Odyssey” without Odysseus. [These characters] take you into any world you want. There are very good stories that have the opportunity for nice psychodrama. You just build on clues left before. You start from the last scene and move in reverse”
The Fashion Show On Bravo, world renown designer Isaac Mizrahi brings his delicious style of commentary that was so prevalent in the successful Miramax film “Unzipped” to the small screen. In relation to its predecessor “Project Runway”, Mizrahi says the format of this show is different in that “maybe it is more competitive”. Described by him, there is a mini challenge within each episode and then the fashion show. In terms of being on Bravo, he says “in terms of quality, [they] do it best”. In terms of exclusions, he says right now there will be no men’s clothes on the show but the challenges are different each time. One week could be society clothes made for only 40 dollars while another week could be shoes. In response to the evolution of fashion and celebrity understanding of what it means, Mizrahi comments “I think we have all become more aware of style. The great thing about television [and online] in general is that it is about education and communication. It is about an evolution. The stars have come a long way. They are working with stylists which they never did before.” The way the media and arts operate today, Mizrahi sees a “very fine line between red carpet and runway” as they move closer towards each other.
Kelly Rowland, formerly of Destiny’s Child, is the host of the show and points toward the exciting voting element of the show: “I like how America gets to vote the final winner. America makes stars now”. She likens Kelly Clarkson as a wonderful example of this. Mizrahi likes how Rowland “cuts to the chase and says ‘that girl cannot wear that’”. A key point brought to Mizrahi’s attention was if the clothes will be seen on real people’s bodies. His reply: “I am right in the middle of promoting a Liz Claiborne line [that I designed]. [To be honest], real people are interested in seeing clothes on models. [At different points on the show] we had real people involved and it was fabulous. The answer here is multi-fold. We do make sure that there are fittings on many different body [types]. Certain designers are very good at that but [when someone] is 65, she is not 35. Paris Hilton has needs too!”
America’s Got Talent This show continues to build its structure especially after the meteroric rise of Susan Doyle in the British version. Adding to the American contingent along with stalwarts David Hasselhoff and Sharon Osbourne, Nick Cannon has joined the team as host. Nick speaks on his arrival: “I am the freshman and in HD. I am trying to just bring the energy and have a good time. I think my angle is truly as a fan because I will get emotional when it’s time to get emotional.” Osbourne just loves the spontaneity of it: “Every year you never know what is going to come through the door. We’ve done NY, LA and Miami already. There is a great anticipation”. Simon Cowell, who produces the show, has, as is legendary, his own brand of perspective: “It’s always about who turns up. We’ve got new people on board who make the difference but it all depends on who walks through the door. What is great about [the story of] Susan Boyle is that it is one of the underdog. When the story plays out, it either works or it doesn’t. We wanted to create a TV show where there were no rules.”
And that is the key as the presentation of NBC’s Summer Slate 2009 concludes.
Watching The Line: Paley Television Festival 2009
25 Apr
Every year, Paleyfest brings into perspective the perception and life of a given series. When talent and creators are making a series, sometimes they are in a bubble, especially if it is a new outing. The two presentations attended are both freshman series per se who are enjoying some success.
The Big Bang Theory This half hour single cam sitcom came out of nowhere under the auspice of creator Chuck Lorre who is also the force behind “Two & A Half Men”. But where that series celebrates the slacker success with talent, “Big Bang” celebrates intellectual prowess with social ineptness. The key to the series is the 5 leads: 4 guys and 1 girl. The group made up of a repressed geek, a super genius, a horny Jewish physicist, a Hindi mute and a regular actress/waitress is nothing if not specific. What the panel seemed to indicate more than anything else as it went on is that the comic timing of the cast members and many of their idiosyncracies translate to real life which makes it come off well on screen. This is none more prevalent than between Jim Parsons (who plays Sheldon) and Kaylie Cuoco (who plays Penny). Granted Parsons is nowhere near as repressed as Sheldon but you can see aspects of his own self within the character for sure. You can see the braziness of Penny in Kaylie along with her maternal instinct. More than once during the panel when people in the audience gave her a compliment as well as Lorre, she almost started to cry. It makes her come off very sweet. Lorre discussed that the first pilot they made before the second one that made it to air had Sheldon and Leonard but no Penny, Wolowitz or Rajesh. The Penny character in that incarnation was more of a party girl but testing found that the audience didn’t like her at all. The four guys are innocents so you have to balance them with someone with good in her heart. Kaylie said that she tried out for the orginal one but she wasn’t bad enough. Parsons came back at her covering his mouth saying: “She’s not that good.”
Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard was actually very quiet during the panel. Initially Lorre knew him because he was on “Roseanne” as a love interest to Sara Gilbert which actually repeated itself in an episode of “Theory”. We actually saw a clip before the panel began. In “Roseanne”, Galecki looks young and like any wanna-be popular kid but nothing like the geeky guy he is made up to be in the series. When he first comes up on stage what is interesting and says a lot about his real persona versus the one onscreen is that he takes off his glasses which it seems that he actually needs. He seemed to want to appear cool and collected to separate himself from the character but he does laugh when they start telling stories in the middle of the panel. His casting came about when Lorre called Galecki who was doing a play in NY at the time to come in and audition. Galecki loved getting a call back from a man he had worked with in his youth. Parsons by comparison, who admits that he has not worked much in TV, was told that Lorre was casting a new sitcom but admits he had no clue who he was. He ends up making a joke about Lolliberry which Lorre reacts to by shaking his head back and forth rubbing his temples. Parsons says that when he and Galecki first rehearsed it seemed right. But this was strictly for the point that what they were performing in terms of character was so specific that it literally allowed them to be hyper-focused, according to Parsons, on the nuances.
Before the panel actually began, Lorre showed an episode that doesn’t air until the end of the month called “The Vegas Normalization” which has Wolowitz, Rajesh and Leonard heading to Vegas after Wolowitz gets dumped (by none other than Sara Gilbert). Prostitute etiquette ensues. Meanwhile Sheldon is locked out of his apartment and has to spend the night with Penny which creates more questions. It is the perfect balance of an episode. One really funny element of the panel which almost sounds like an episode in of itself is the story of when the talent and creators went down to Comic Con last year for a panel. Wolowitz and Leonard rented a boat with no idea how to drive it although they had found shorts. Wolowitz also found a captain’s hat. Rajesh was ready to go and eventually ended up in the water. Sheldon got on the boat wanting nothing to do with it. Penny meanwhile throttles the boat up to full speed in the harbor and keesp wanting to go faster. Now take into consideration that the whole time this story is being told onstage, they are talking over each other at a mile a minute. The reactions and quips run fast. It is just as entertaining with them sitting there on stage as watching the show. That chemistry is poignant for them as friends and you see it which is rare. Kaylie makes a point which is reinforced by the boys that there is absolutely no ad libbing in the shooting of the show. There is no need for it, according to them, because the writing is so good. Parson backs this up but says that when he first came into the aspect of Sheldon and his science jargon, it was astounding in its complexity. But he pulls it off without a hitch.
A guy in the audience tries to Parsons to decipher “rock/paper/scissors/lizard/spock” which he tries but to no avail. Wolowitz is then asked about his wardrobe and pants which he said he needs assistance sometimes to get off. Trying to figure how to go to the bathroom with these pants cannot be accomplished. Parsons tells the story of one day about a week ago where he had a female visitor and Wolowitz bursts into the room in some kind of blue getup. The girl says that he looks like a Little Mermaid to which Parson says “I can see his Little Mermiad”. Spot on comedy again. There is of course alot of teasing going on on both sides but Kaylie, as the sole female, asserts herself. Wolowitz is a bit quiet for sure in real life and Rajesh is much more relaxed. However, you can’t help projecting a little bit of their onscreen persona onto the real actors. Parsons tells Kaylie during the panel that she shouldn’t be so surprised that the people like the show since they came to see them. Lorre discusses a bit about the theme song by the Barenaked Ladies (they wanted the energy of “One Week” but in breaking down universal history in 15 seconds) and his note cards at the end of the episodes (he writes them at the last minute).
The actual gestation of the show was built out of co-creator Bill Prady being a computer programmer in NY. The character of Sheldon is partially based on a guy he knew who could do calculations in his head faster than a machine but could not figure out the tip for dinner because it is 15-20% and not an absolute. This idea became the basis for Sheldon. Wolowitz was based slightly on another friend of his whose motto was hit on everything and have no standards in terms of women. Wolowitz himself looks a little embarassed. Galecki said he was first considered for Sheldon but he wanted Leonard because there was the romantic dynamic with the Penny character, He seemed almost a little shy in saying this. When asked if Sheldon will ever have a romantic interest, Lorre seemed to discount it saying that Sheldon doesn’t think in that way. His love is science and science absolutely. Another question revolved around seeing more of the boys’ childhood and college years which intrigued Lorre but he said it might be more difficult to recreate the cast in that ideal in terms of visually. He jokingly says that it would probably be in Season 7. It was also announced at the panel that “Big Bang Theory” has been picked up for two additional seasons while “Two & A Half Men” was picked up for three. Lorre is doing something right. Even though the time frame for an individual episode is being whittled down (21 minutes and change) as long as the FCC doesn’t have any problem with their material, they have the ability to try what they want. The actors seem to admit though that their characters are set in their ways and might not adjust to evolving. It is just a matter of the world and the situation changing around them.
Fringe This night began with a screening of the episode “The Transformation” which was directed by Brad Anderson (“Session 9″) where a man becomes a human porcupine and crashes a jet. Olivia, the central character who is also an FBI agent, must go into her own psyche and find her dead partner whom she was also having a relationship with. It is a multi-pronged psychological episode which seemed to be a favorite of show runner Jeff Pinkner who said they wanted to see it on the big screen inside the Cinerama Dome. The panel had fun for sure since they wanted to poke a little fun. The moderator from Entertainment Weekly was a bit wordy but very specific in his questions despite some of them being too self reflexive. Co-creator JJ Abrams, on the eve of the opening of the massive “Star Trek” which only earlier in the day had got a rave review from Variety, said that “Fringe” came about because he and his co-creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who also did “MI:3″ and “Star Trek” with him) wanted to create a genre “X-Files” type show which could exist in both worlds but work as mythology with stand alone potential. Abrams speaks that “Lost” and similar series he admits can be maddening sometimes. With “Fringe” (for the most part), you can jump in and get the gist without having to deal with too much overarching mythology.
Anna Torv who plays Olivia, the dark and brooding FBI agent who deals with the father/son team of Walter & Peter Bishop, likes the fact that her character is away from form. She has a balance, albeit a slightly odd one, between her job, her sister, her niece and her now dead fiance. You see her smile but only when she is away from work which speaks to something we haven’t seen yet. Joshua Jackson as the Peter to his crazy and brilliant father Walter (played by the slicingly fun John Noble) is the man of reason but not of morality. Jackson speaks that his character may know where the line to cross is and points it out but it is not necessarily because he disagrees with it. His character is there to let air out of the situation while allowing the believability factor to shine through with a degree of complacency. When he first read the script and decided this was the right time to return to TV, Jackson said he saw a series that had the ability to reach 100 episodes in a strong fashion.
John Noble shares many ticks and funny perceptions of his alter ego: Walter. He compares the aspect of this man to the 60s. Many of the youth today are enamoured or mesmerized by the 60s with its aspects of drugs, rebellion free love and the creation of the pill (his words – this got a big if not nervous laugh from the panel and the audience). But according to Noble, that is what makes Walter so identifiable: he’s cool but he has not lost his childlike wonder despite his want and need to cut things. Inevitably this mode of thinking leads to a discussion of Gene, the cow who is always in the lab. It is a bit of an ode of mad scientist according to Pinkner but also a reminder that Walter is still doing his testing, no matter what anyone might say. This for him is all an experiment. This brought up the fact that they will be moving the production to Vancouver. Whether this has happened or not yet is to be seen.
Also brought up in conversation by the moderator was the recent announcement of Leonard Nimoy (whom Abrams had just worked with on “Star Trek”) coming in to play William Bell who is Walter’s former science partner. Bell had become one of the richest people in the world while Walter was rotting in a mental institution. Abrams says these characters are not too different in the overall scheme of things. Torv says that she has done some scenes with Nimoy. She seemed genuinely awe struck though she couldn’t do the Vulcan fingers. JJ demoed it for her since he seems to have it down. Abrams didn’t think that they would get Nimoy. He thought the “Star Trek” aspect was just a singular occurence since Nimoy initially did not commit to that either until he saw a script. But he liked what he saw on “Fringe”. After he read the set script, he agreed to do it. Abrams however won’t say how many episodes Nimoy has agreed to. The place card symbols at the beginning of the commercial breaks were also discussed. It was revealed that there is a code intertwined but its meaning is still a mystery. Another point was made about Walter’s manifesto and its application. Noble explains that Walter is saying “I don’t know” more often than not now but that his powers of deduction are serving him well as he becomes more in touch with the real world.
The final inquiry of evening involved the overarching mythology of the show and how far in advance show points are discussed in terms of the writing. Abrams says that if you look at “Lost”, Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus was only originally going to be brought in for one or two episodes and is now a major character. It depends how people react in the progression of the series. He likens it to being on a road in the fog where you can see your destination way up ahead. At a certain point, you might find a better road if you are lucky enough to keep driving. That is how he rolls. What was also interesting was that there was a sneak peek of “Star Trek” going on consecutively inside the Arclight. Double fun for sure.
The Paleyfest 2009 offered this reporter insights into two very diversely different series in the form of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Fringe”. What stood out the most was the inherent chemistry of the different casts specifically between Sheldon and Penny in the former and the Peter & Walter Bishop in the latter. Each are different but there is just a good rhythm and humor which is what makes the best shows succeed.
