Interlocked Frames Of Light

More Howard Music

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:44:15 GMT

I am about to take you back in time...

Go here and right click and "Save As..." the link to "Hey, A Movie!"

http://www.mystacor.com/muppet_musique/tgmc/tgmc.html

Is there any way to stop it??

Theatrical Trailer - Finding Magneto

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:45:50 GMT

Edit: Got the formatting right and added a link to the music at the proper place.

THEATRICAL TRAILER: FINDING MAGNETO

Jittery raw video footage, impossible to tell of what, outside, but with odd smooth rounded walls. The sound of feet running, indistinct radio VOICE-OVERS.

RADIO VOICE 1:
Go left, go left.

RADIO VOICE 2:
It's up ahead. Get the shot, you should be able to..

RADIO VOICE 1:
Straight ahead, go, go.

The raw video footage lifts up, focuses, pulls back, resolves to the side of a nuclear power plant. At first it's difficult to see what the frame is looking for. Then it resolves - a man floating off the ground. It's Magneto, in the famous shot from live TV in his first appearance. This is from an archival recording that has not been retouched or cleaned up.

MAGNETO:
Good evening.

CUT TO BLACK

CINEMAHELIX PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS logo

CUT TO BLACK

Title: Ten Years Later

CUT TO BLACK

FADE UP on an extremely tight close-up of a brown-haired girl, NORMA. It is Piper Jameson in a very skillful wig or some other kind of hair coloring. She is impassive, looking straight ahead.

V.O. (old woman):
Once upon a time...

Slow pull back to reveal NORMA is sitting, knees together, stiff-backed, in a plain wooden chair surrounded by other empty chairs.

V.O. (old woman):
...there was a girl...

PAN AROUND her to reveal that the chairs are surrounded by more empty chairs. She is among hundreds of empty chairs, looking up at a stage with the curtains drawn, as in a high school.

V.O. (old woman):
...who asked - 'why must my classmates hate me...'

Right side of screen slides left, left side of screen shows the girl walking through a crowded school hallway. It looks normal, until the camera lifts up to reveal that no one ever comes within five feet of her, no matter how crowded the hallway is.

V.O. (old woman):
'...why must my parents despise me...'

Left side of screen slides right. Right side of screen shows girl entering a normal-looking home. Interior of home, she walks into the kitchen, her mother is washing dishes.

NORMA:
Hi, Mom.

NORMA'S MOTHER cries out in surprise and fear, dropping the dish into the sink and jerking with terror. She turns around too fast, and her smile is grossly fake, distorted.

V.O. (old woman):
'...why must God desert me...'

Both sides of the screen are pushed left by a full-screen scene of NORMA and her family sitting in a pew in church.

PREACHER:
God made people they way they were for a reason.
When God's creation becomes distorted, mutated, it
breaks his heart, just like every sin breaks his heart.
To the murderer and adulterer, God says the same
thing He says to a mutant: 'I do not know thee.'

PULL BACK to reveal everyone sitting in pews behind NORMA and her family are all looking at NORMA.

V.O. (old woman):
'...why must the world be against me and all like me...'

MEDIUM SHOT on NORMA stands at just a little further than arm's length from a HOMELESS MUTANT with blue skin, tentacles for hair, wearing a cammo jacket torn and stained. He holds out a cassette tape to her.

CLOSE-UP on the cassette tape. It says 'MAGNETO' on it in black marker with some incomprehensible numbers.

TIGHT CLOSE-UP on NORMA's hand. She reaches for the tape. She touches it. She takes it.

V.O. (old woman):
'...and what must I do about it?'

NORMA in her bedroom, sliding the tape into a walkman. She puts on her headphones. She closes her eyes, trembling.

MAGNETO (on tape):
This is Magneto speaking.

CUT TO BLACK

V.O. (old woman):
...So she went looking for the man
she thought held all the answers...

NORMA'S ROOM - it has clearly been the scene of packing.

CUT TO: NORMA with her backpack getting onto a bus.

CUT TO: NORMA'S FATHER, who is looking at the empty room. A look of profound relief passes over his face as he realizes she's gone.

NORMA'S FATHER (calling out behind him):
Yes, dear...it looks like she's gone...

CUT TO: Van driving down asphalt highway.

MEDIUM SHOT of skinny black woman driving the van, NORMA in the passenger seat.

V.O. (old woman):
... But along the way she discovered
a strange and magical land...

SCIENTIST (driving van, thick Southern accent):
Normal? Normal? Ha! Ha, honey, in a world where
a fifty story dude in purple comes around every so
often to EAT the planet and good ole fashioned mad scientists
like me can't get tenure, who's to say what's normal and what ain't?

INTERIOR: the back of the van, swaying with wires, beakers, and computer equipment.

SCIENTIST (over):
Some committee? The President, maybe? A wacko in
spandex? You? You gonna be the one to say what's
normal and what's not? Because I've got an IQ of 187 and
I've never been able to figure it out.

CLOSE UP on NORMA, smiling. She does have a nice smile, it's the first time we've seen it. CUT TO: American flag on the high school stage. Slow pan left to the closed red curtains.

V.O. (old woman):
... called America...

FX: The "Manic Depression" track begins to play, the sad piano of Ben Folds being pushed along by the bouncy Bangles 80s synthpop.

V.O. (NORMA):
Who else am I going to turn to? My parents hate me, my
school hates me, my church hates me?
At least Magneto will give me a chance.

V.O. (young man):
Nothing happens by chance.

CUT TO: Close-up on Norma, standing in dim light, face to face with KUMBO, a young black man. She's confused by his comment.

NORMA:
What?

KUMBO:
You heard me.

CUT TO small town anti-mutant march. Smiling people carrying vicious signs wave at friends in the crowd.

V.O. (old woman):
... Where only a few miles up the
road, everything is different....

A FRIEND OF HUMANITY is up on a podium at the march, gesticulating as he orates.

FRIEND OF HUMANITY:
Folks, don't let the mutants ruin your town like they
ruined the city. They bring crime and disease with them and
they are after your boys and girls, to use them as
breeding machines for their so-called master race.

PAN DOWN to crowd, they're rather bored.

MAN IN CROWD:
What a blowhard.

CUT TO interrogation room. NORMA and AGENT CAFFERTY are there.

V.O. (old woman):
... And anything can happen.

AGENT CAFFERTY:
So you decided to go looking for Magneto. Decided
to try to find the one guy that seemed to have the answers. And
you looked, and you looked, and you got on his trail
, started following, trying to catch up with him, you wanted nothing else,
not your family, not your friend in the other room, not your
country, nothing mattered but to find Magneto, to join him.

NORMA says nothing, looking down at her hands on the table in the room.

AGENT CAFFERTY:
But something happened, didn't it, Norma?

NORMA slowly looks up, pegs the camera, looks right into it, silent, breathing hard, swallowing.

CUT TO BLACK

Title: FROM AN UNEXPECTED PLACE COMES A BOLD NEW CALL FOR UNDERSTANDING

Behind the title, KUMBO and a young woman kiss in the doorway of a diner. QUICK FADE THROUGH to the spiralling red and blue lights of police cars surrounding the wreckage of a building. QUICK FADE THROUGH to NORMA standing in the midst of a tall grassy field, the wind blows across it like waves on the ocean.

Title (a bigger font, alone on the screen): THIS FALL

CUT TO: Two people, NORMA and another young woman, are sitting in the back seat of a car, talking. We do not hear the conversation.

After a beat, a car which has been nondescriptly approaching down a side street slams into the side of the car with a sudden and unexpected (but eerily soundless) jolt.

Title (alone): THE SEARCH

CUT TO: A suitcase filled with wooden weapons - stakes, a crossbow, arrows sharpened to a deadly point. It is sitting on a motel bed while it rains outside, grey light crossing across it.

V.O. (FRIEND OF HUMANITY):
You got to understand, that for every problem, there is a solution.
For every disease, there is a cure. And there is a solution
for the mutant problem too. It's just a question of
will. Do we have the will to execute the solution?

Title (alone): IS ON

CUT TO: A shadowy naga-like snake-woman uncoils ominously in the darkness of a half-lit apartment, then lunges forward into the light. It's Ryanne, well-made up and wearing thrift-store clothes, badly.

SNAKE-WOMAN:
Yes, I can tell you where to find Magneto. He's
a lot closer than you think. A lot closer.
Very nearby...and yes. Yes, he can help you. And he will.

Title Card, with graphic: FINDING MAGNETO

Title: THE LOGICAL STORY OF AN INSANE PURSUIT.

(The words of this title appear one by one in this order: "The Insane Story Of A Logical Pursuit")

CUT TO a closeup on an ominous, plain grey metal - obviously metal - door.

CUT TO BLACK

V.O. MAGNETO (archival tape, away from a microphone, scratchy, jittery):
Soon everyone on Earth will know why I did what I have done.

QUICK FADE TO NORMA in the theater. She watches the curtains on the stage slowly pulling back, darkness beyond. QUICK FADE TO BLACK.

Title card: This movie is not yet rated.

Credits card: Written, Produced and Directed by Howard Aldrin. Starring Piper Jameson

OOC: Now that Youtube is back...

Mon, 29 May 2006 18:43:24 GMT

Seach on Youtube was down for a while, preventing me from posting up the very best Howard-esque videos:

The Statue Got Me High -

At the brithplace of Magneto's dream, the nuclear power plant he threatened to destroy many years ago, Howard and his associates film a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fv06_blJLM

Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head -

A Cinemahelix Production to support Mutant Town cleanup. Filmed on location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U24OvWVdVwA

Ana Ng -

Howard's artistic commentary on the Marvel Civil War. God help you trying to figure it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQLkxz6c2E

Nothing But Flowers -

Another video that probably fits Howard's style, even if he's not in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJIj7wFvcJQ

And of course...

Don't Let's Start -

"Nobody in this world ever gets what they want...and that is beautiful.
Everybody dies frustrated and sad...and that is beautiful."

Kind of the theme of "Finding Magneto"? Hm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuCfnQiiyMU

Website for the school...

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:59:02 GMT

Website for the school:

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/unitedacademy/

Pictures and sounds from "Finding Magneto"

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 04:28:59 GMT

Behind the cut: pictures and sound from the production of "Finding Magneto"

Getting night-time shots with my stalwart AD1, Catastrophe Jones, on the historic elevated train platform at 110th street.

The City Council of Avon Creek, New Jersey, just after approving our application to come work there! Thanks, guys!

We used the stage at the Pink Slip Daddy nightclub, which is actually mutant-friendly in real life too! We got to use the club after it closed thanks to the generosity of the owners. Lighting already built in, you can't do better than that.

Blame It On The Streets Of San Francisco a mashup by the great DJ Payroll also known as the American Theme from "Finding Magneto". We were humming it all over the set!

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 23:07:01 GMT

I know, I know, it's been forever since I updated you all with the new information on CinemaHelix's new production, the drama "Finding Magneto", to be released to select independent theaters this summer. We are currently in the middle of principal photography, which is being conducted in three parts:

Salem Center: Interiors, close and distant work, road work, and the home of the lead character.

New York City: We are shooting all over New York City from our headquarters at the Gramercy Park Art Hostel, and a big thank you to the board of directors there who let us pick up the last few weeks of the season after another group cancelled. New York City is all of our city shots, all of our work in clubs and industrial centers, as well as the entire SHIELD sequence.

Avon Creek, New Jersey: This is a small town that's trying to attract filmmakers, and they've been just great to CinemaHelix, putting us in touch with local businesses such as the Regal Diner, where we're shooting the middle sequence of the film. Throughout the Avon Creek area we'll be

I have gotten some e-mails from some people asking about how we're dealing with the In God's Image group given that they're here right as we're doing our highly genetically "integrated" production. Actually I went over and shot some footage of their first rally. Very well-produced bigotry, very good public relations and marketing. On a professional level, I can see they have a great deal of strength. But as we found out when the money guy got arrested for stealing from the group, hate can't provide a moral basis for how to live life. I would say they need a new name: "God Help Us". Actually that wouldn't be a bad name for any group out there, whatever they're about.

I haven't seen Jill very much...she got really busy...I know I shouldn't take it personally. It's cool. I've been busy too. You'd think that would keep me from wondering about her...

And I haven't seen the faculty much either, outside of classes, which means my plan's working. I nailed my finals and got basically As. Even in PE, for the first time. I guess that's the advantage of a private school where they can make SURE they know what you're eating.

I am really starting to think I have something here, this script, after the last revision, when I pushed the ending just that tiny bit further, is really affecting the cast and crew, these are issues that definitely speak to them as much as they do to me, so...one can hope....

Next post - pictures and sounds from the production....

OOC Post: MU* website

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:22:19 GMT

The MU* website is at:

http://www.currentmarvel.mushpark.com

It has a pic of Howard up that's based on a comic-ization of his actor. Pretty cool.

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:15:45 GMT

Nadia's here at the school now, and I met this great girl named Jill from Nebraska who was literally chased out of her small town after her power went haywire at The Big Game. Well, they're cliches for a reason, I guess. I asked her out even after I discovered she was a cheerleader. I have no clue what my league is these days, it seems like everybody is out of it, so if I don't want to have a life totally alone, I better get used to taking my chances where I can find them.

I got a roommate, Chris. He wants to break into get a good look at the X-Jet. I was along with this idea for a while until I got busted like three times in three days. The heat is on, better just keep my head down and finish this screenplay.

Nadia is really talented, she did these murals down in the City, I filmed her with them...we are now going to try to get her some actual public art gigs. It should be cool if we can work it out over the phone...man, can you imagine how "in your face" it is going to be when she shows up?

Ms. Frost said that the movie is too controversial for the school to touch, but she might be able to put a little bit into the kitty in return for some work. I'm cool with that. Also, the town of Avon River, New Jersey responded to my letter about indie filmmaking there...so it looks like we may have a location! The casting call is getting some good responses too. If we can just get the money, I think this might happen.

Catastrophe seems different since the night she and Piper snuck out and got wasted, maybe she is finally settling in? Who knows.

I got a uniform and a codename. Ha haaaa. The codename is silly, "Director", but the uniform is neat. I put this little shoulder strap thingy on it for doodads like light meters and viewfinders and...stuff. The only thing we've done with it is a Danger Room scenario.

More on the Ramsey scenario later. In short, it was crap. But what can you expect when you give amateurs essentially an unlimited budget? That Danger Room is one of the most significant artistic development since the printing press and it's just sitting around getting used for mutant junk. Not that I have any problem with mutant junk, it's just really shortsighted. Oh well.

Note to self: Don't ask Derrek for help with anything. He doesn't understand what the word "help" means. I think he thinks it means "make things a lot worse".

OOC: More Howard Photos

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 04:53:55 GMT

OOC post: Behind the cut...more Howard pics!

"Danger Room Control, this is the Director speaking!"

Howard won't even put down his coffee to go drive around...

Someone should tell him that he doesn't look any cooler with his brow raised.

This is him actually smiling and looking vaguely attractive.

"Double-u, tee, eff."

What dramatic lighting will do for you. (Not much, it appears.)

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:23:16 GMT

Ms. Blaire took me down to New York City! It was really the first time I got to go around the city and actually shoot some still frames and even a few pans and handheld walking sequences. I know I looked like a completely feeble tourist, gawking at all the buildings and people, but I didn't care. It was incredible! You could just feel the energy of the city all around you.

We were there to look for some guy who they wanted to recruit for the Academy. He's an older guy, a tattoo artist named Dante (possibly. could be a fake name.) Pretty talented too, at least I was impressed with the designs, not knowing anything about tattoos! He is apparently a telepath. I don't know if he scanned my brain or not. How can you tell? Anyway, he agreed to come back to the Academy and check the place out. I'm sure they have some college level stuff for him to do, or maybe there's like a telepath's symposium or whatnot.

I have to go back to that city. Soon, and often.

"'Cause everyone's your friend in New York City
And everything is beautiful when you're young and pretty
The streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see
But the best thing about New York City is you and me!"

Preliminary Call Sheet For "Finding Magneto"

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:28:47 GMT

Call Type: Non-SAG, non-equity. CinemaHelix Productions employs mutant performers.

Performers of all ethnic, racial and genetic backgrounds are encouraged to attend.

This is a student production of an indepdendent feature film, "Finding Magneto", that will be shooting during December 2005 and January 2006, with a slated release date of spring 2006. It contains comedic elements, dramatic elements, experimental film techniques that will require patience and accomodation on the part of performers, and a small but significant set of action sequences.

Audition Dates: November 19-21, November 26-28, December 3-5.

Location: Salem Center Community Center, Room 3B

Times: 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.

Callbacks will be the week of December 5.

Appointments: For appointments, please e-mail casting@cinemahelix.myspace.com

A monitor will NOT be provided. The producer will run all aspects of this audition.

Contract: Variable, equivalent to student film standard rate.

Seeking: All roles open. See breakdown. If you have auditioned for CinemaHelix in the last six months, I do not need to see you again, and please refrain from attending so I may get to know new people.

Preparation: Current picture with 1-page resume stapled to back. Please prepare two 2-3 minute contrasting monologues from published plays or movies. Many parts require physical audition, please see breakdown for specific preparation instructions.

Norma - Norma is a young mutant woman from a small town family. Plays 14-24. She has religious conviction, a difficult home life and courage. Please be prepared to demonstrate running, bring a tape recording of a 1-2 minute poetry reading. Stage fighting a plus.

Monroe - Monroe is a young man from a big city. Plays 16-24. He is both outgoing and has a secret that is eating him alive. One monologue must be humorous. Be prepared to demonstrate running, tumbling. Mat provided. Stage fighting a plus.

Norma's family - Father - Plays 30-55. One monologue must be dramatic. Stunt fall necessary. Mat provided. Mother - Plays 30-55. One monologue must be dramatic. Brother - Plays 7-12. Flexible.

SHIELD Agent Cafferty - Female or male performers may bring different emphases to this role. Plays 20-40. Stage gun work, fighting a plus. Be prepared to demonstrate running, stage fall. Mat provided.

Laura - Plays 16-24. Must be able to project moral clarity as well as desire and confidence. One monologue must be romantic. Waitress experience a plus.

CITY EXTRAS - We will need approximately 50-60 urban extras of varying ethnicities, race, and age for many scenes. Extra wage scale. No speaking parts.

SMALL TOWN EXTRAS - We will need approximately 30 small town extras of varying ethnicities, race and age for many scenes. Extra wage scale. No speaking parts.

DRIVERS - This is in part a road movie. I will need approximately 10 drivers for road scenes away from practical traffic effects. These may also be extras from either group.

ANOTHER BREAKDOWN SHEET WILL BE PREPARED AND RELEASED SHORTLY.

Thank you for your interest in CinemaHelix Productions.

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 15:06:32 GMT

I got some great stills of some graffiti....hard to even call it graffiti. It's more public art than graffiti. It was done by a girl with snakes for hair and snakelike eyes. Her name was Nadia, and she wanted to know where the school was. After I talked to Ms. Blaire, she was brough to the school. I think she's doing okay. At least she is getting three square meals and a roof over her head.

Who the hell am I to feel sorry for myself? Sure, my family and friends didn't want me around anymore when they figured out I was a mutant, but I don't have hair that will bite people. I hear every city in the U.S. has its own Morlock den now. Its own literal underground of mutants whose appearances keep them from going around with "normal" people.

Whatever is inside Nadia that gives her the power to her make such dynamic and striking art, to design fonts and symbols, to make a tortured picture with a few lines of cheap paint on the rough surface of brick, whatever that is, the only way she can get anyone to see it is to wear a hooded sweatshirt, pulled up, all the time. Something about that makes my skin crawl more than having snakes for hair.

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 06:31:06 GMT

TO: BLAIRA, CENTRALCOM
FROM: ALDRINH
RE: Edited Footage Of Mutant Liberation Front Attack

Ms. Blaire and associates -

As you assigned, I have edited up the footage of the MLF attack. As you may know, I was using a Sony HDW-F900 Cine Alta HD Minicam set for high-exposure compression for night-time shooting. This means that I was getting an enormous number of frames per second stored in the memory of the camera in order to establish the extremely low levels of light involved in nighttime shooting. This is good news for this editing project considering that when the web mutant attacked me, I dropped the camera and so it had to rely on limited autofocusing, and the single 100 watt beamlight that thankfully didn't turn off. The good news is that I got dozens of thousands of frames from the memory of the camera when I recovered it. The bad news is thousands of these frames were completely unusuable and had to be discarded before I could get the ones that you see in this attached product. When I found a usable frame, I had to color-correct, rotate, and sometimes edge detect and enhance the shapes, and then match it to the nearest usuable frame. THIS MEANS THAT THE NUMBER OF RESTORED FRAMES PER SECOND VARIES CONSIDERABLY. At times you will be watching digital footage on par with a super-8, at other times like an old 100-speed silent movie. Fortunately the computers here are very powerful and were able to handle this graphics load easily, even zooming in and enhancing parts of the data.

I WAS out there for a class - the photography class I'm taking at the adjunct community college. Yes, I know I broke curfew, but it was for an assignment! You can't just digitally sub in day for night and expect to get the hues and saturation right.

But this e-mail is not a justification, this is me turning in my assignment so I can get detention time knocked off like you said. I did NOT have a microphone with me and so I didn't get any voices. Thus, I have put in a soundtrack. This recording is used without permission and if you ever want to release it outside the school, I ask that you let me know so I can arrange for ASCAP permission and a cover of the song. It's Fountains of Wayne's "Bought For A Song". I will be happy to discuss my choice of music or other stylistic details with anyone who wants. There is a commentary track also recorded on the alternate track. The DVD data is not region encoded.

Thanks for the opportunity not to be stuck in detention for a month.

Very Sincerely,

Howard Aldrin
CinemaHelix Productions

Video Transcript

[BLACK SCREEN.

The SOUNDTRACK begins.]

Computer voice: For flight arrival and departure information, please press one....

[ SLOW FADE UP on EXTERIOR, NIGHT: HOWARD and DERREK, dressed in dark clothes, walking down the walkway towards the ATHLETIC FIELD. ]

Computer voice: For travel within the fifty United States, please press two...

[ A GENTLY FRAMED VIEW of the high dark mountain ridge, the trees swaying slightly in the evening breeze. ]

Computer voice: For international travel, including Canada or Puerto Rico, please press three...

[ DERREK crosses in front of the camera momentarily, then heads for the treeline, climbing up... ]

Airline sound. GUITAR STARTS. DRUM STARTS. FIRST BEAT.

[ "DRAFTED" graphic. ]

SECOND BEAT.

[ "CinemaHelix Productions" graphic. ]

THIRD BEAT.

[ "'Bought For A Song', Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers" text. ]

Soundtrack: Come on and get your ass out of bed, you heard what the man said, the crew is already gone...we were all kind of high, but man, what were you on?

[ CUT TO - the Poisoner and the Green Dragon surrounding Derrek in the tree... Derrek jumps...]

[ FREEZE FRAME, ZOOM IN ON DERREK. Title appears: "Derrek Meyers" ]

Soundtrack: Tried to take a shuttle to Spain, they kicked me off of the plane, I guess I'll go to Japan...

[ The Green Dragon leaps out of the tree. FREEZE FRAME, ZOOM IN: "Green Dragon" title appears. The Poisoner dances around the tree a little bit. FREEZE FRAME, ZOOM IN: "Poisoner" title appears.]

Soundtrack: Well, it all looks the same when you stump for the man...

[ Suddenly, Web looms up indistinctly right in front of the camera. WASH THROUGH with green, then blue, then red light as the color correction sweeps across the screen left to right, SLOW MOTION as the beamlight on the camera flares to life and catches her in an ominous silhouette, her huge pincers clacking down. HOWARD'S foot can be seen momentarily in-frame as the camera jolts to life and flails indistinctly backwards. Up until this point, the fight has been taking place at a great distance, now it is right up in the audience's face. ]

Soundtrack: Down in the valley, we crawl in the alley, who knew the 101 was so long? Before you get sold you get bought for a song...

[ FREEZE FRAME, WIPE THROUGH to graphic: "Web". Web's organic webbing collapses onto the camera and there's a few moments of indistinct, increasingly jittery nothing, increasing the tension. ]

Soundtrack: Saki in aluminum cans, it fell in the wrong hands, and now we're chewin' the scene, stumbling out of the Lexington Queen...

[ Suddenly the camera stops, then half-through the oddly illuminated webbing we see that we are TRACKING at ground level across the field as Alison Blaire fights with an indistinct shadow. (A pop-up graphic near the shadow illuminates it badly and says 'RHEUM?') We TRACK PAST Kitty Pryde facing off against the Green Dragon just as a tree collapses in the background. ]

Soundtrack: Walking through a German hotel, and not walking very well, I gotta get to the van. Excuse me, I'm weaving as fast as I can!

[ Kitty dives through the Green Dragon as the camera stops TRACKING and spins slowly around, stationary, still at ground level, to see Sam Guthrie, blasting away with Web still hanging onto Howard, whose hands are digging into the athletic field painfully, screaming at the top of his lungs. FREEZE FRAME, ZOOM IN on Howard's screaming face. Graphic: "Howard Aldrin". ]

Soundtrack: And Tom won't admit he got lost in the city, he said that the directions are wrong....

[ Sam flies up into the air, Web wraps around him, while still having Howard half-stuck in the webs, dragging him back and up now. Then suddenly the camera starts to PULL BACK, fast - the ground that it is sitting on is opening up to reveal a hangar, extremely quickly. We see Alison and the shadow thing fall into the hangar, and the Green Dragon gets a blast of ruby-red energy from somewhere offscreen.

Soundtrack: Before you get sold, you get bought for a song....

[ The camera continues to PULL BACK FAST revealing that Sam is now flying up, with Web attached to Sam and Howard attached to Web. Then the web's tendrils are burned away by Sam's blasting field and Web plummets to earth. Sam catches Howard and throws him somewhere off camera. Nothing happens on screen for a moment. ]

Soundtrack: Before you get sold, you get bought for a song....

[ Suddenly Howard's face looms into the camera as he checks it worriedly to see if it's okay. The camera bounces up, there's a quick PAN ACROSS the field revealing that everyone's basically okay - Kitty is helping Derrek to his feet, Sam has Alison lifted up, Sage (where did she come from? She wasn't on camera before) is taking off her glasses, and so on. ]

[ As the last guitar chords end, the graphic appears: THE END. ]

Director's Commentary

"Hi, this is Howard Aldrin, editor and producer of 'Drafted', the short film you're now seeing. The limitations of this project were very interesting, and... Oh, this part here was shot later. I wanted to establish that Derrek and I were students and we were going out to this athletic field, and also establish the physical space of the athletic field so that you could sort of tell what was going on where. Since it's an action scene mainly in the dark, that's, uh, that's important. So these shots, with the trees, these were the only shots prepared and framed. The rest was found footage, really. Handheld, not compensated...yeah, pretty accidental if anything was in frame that turned out to be useful. There's Derrek climbing the tree. I was going to have him move the branches to the left but then everyone showed up. Oh, these graphics. The names for the attackers I guess are from interrogating the ones that were captured? I don't know, I was only able to get a list of names off the server, the rest was locked to staff and faculty only. Never met or worked with any of these people before...there's Derrek jumping out of the tree...kind of scary that the 'right tree' principle applies in real life. Whenever there's a guy hiding in a tree in a movie, the bad guys stalking him will always pause right under his tree. How do they know which one to stop under to get ambushed? Movie magic. Okay. So that, oh gosh, that's where I got ambushed by 'Web'. This part is kind of confusing, I left it confusing so the audience could sort of get drawn into it...I was basically wrapped up in this mutant's webbed appendages and I was about to get skewered by these pincers...you see them there on the upper left just for a second, and yes, that's not a light artifact, they really were dripping something horrible. Smelled bad too. Anyway, I didn't want to get hit by that...Ah, and now we're moving. Actually I thought about putting in some foley there. The sound of the flying exploding guy...still don't know his name...hitting Web was /amazingly/ painful just to hear. I couldn't get a good foley take on it though, so I just left it with the music. He's dragging Web across the field here, and...yep, ta-da. My big movie star entrance. Screaming for my life. Heh heh. And there goes the camera, out of the web...I still don't know who opened the hangar doors here? Whoever it was sure changed the playing field...uh...no pun intended. And there's the kung fu fighting of Ms. Pryde...Mr. Summers was just out of frame here. Nothing I could do about that, as you can see, I was plummeting to my death. Ta da, rescued at the last second. And there's some dead space here, I wanted to let the audience breathe so I left it in. One more laugh as I check out the camera...'oh my gosh, is the camera okay? it cost my family a fortune...' It's okay or else you wouldn't be seeing this! Thanks for watching."

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 06:45:07 GMT

I know, I know. I've only had the project in mind for a few hours and already I changed the title.

But I got a tagline at the same time!

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 06:04:07 GMT

Books...check.
Classes...check.
Met with advisor....check.

NEW PROJECT!!!!....CHECK!!!

Watch this space for news on the latest CinemaHelix brainstorm! Scratch title: "Waiting For Magneto".

The idea partly came from an image Andrea and a girl named Cessily described to me. I had an idea before that but no images. Andrea said a student had tried to teleport into the school during its destruction a year and a bit ago, and had gotten "stuck" in a ghostlike state. Like James Baldwin's invisible man, are not all mutants "stuck" like him? We all want to get somewhere, but we end up nowhere at all...

What a hell of a metaphor! Whoever this dude is I hope he doesn't mind having an analogue of him in a movie!

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:29:44 GMT

I was waiting in line to get my books when a fight broke out between a girl with feathers in her psychotically colorful mane of hair and a girl who could stretch out her body over a cigarette. The girl with feathers wanted to smoke it and the girl who stretched did not want her to. I was just trying to talk to a couple of girls in line to get my books. Then an oak tree suddenly grew up over the front gate. I have to admit, I was pretty excited about it. I remembered one of my first films. Hell, it's one of everyone's first films. You take pictures every few hours of a plant growing. Then put the frames together and it's like it explodes up out of the soil. I ran out to take some pictures of it. Here's one:

I like how the lighting came out, very saffron...

Anyway, it turns out a bootlicker named Derrek was responsible for the tree. He also wrapped up Cat with a vine (feather-hair girl) and she had some kind of horrible-sounding power that was cutting her out of it when Ms. Pryde said...uh... to cut it out. But he was basically sort of wandering around lost (yeah right) and so I bought him a soda and yacked about his background a little. Him and Andrea (girl who can stretch out her body).

I guess there's some rule about using your abilities to settle disputes, not that mine is useful enough to ever do that with.

Andrea said something that I thought was very sad and very striking (as striking as the frankenstein stitches in Catastrophe's clothes, in its way). She said that she never tried to stretch as far as she could because she worried that she wouldn't be able to get back to normal. As if she could get back to normal if she never stretched her body again in her whole life. As if there was some "normal" for her waiting out there, just waiting, if she would only not reach too far or bounce too high. What an interesting way of looking at things! What a fascinating illusion...

It's not one I share, maybe to my detriment.

I eventually did get my books. And I think Cat did eventually get to smoke her cigarette, alone like she wanted to be in the first place. She said she lived in a dumpster in New York City and if she wasn't telling the truth at the very least she was telling something like the truth. She started playing with me later in the conversation, trading quips about "Get Smart"...an interesting woman.

OOC Update: John Flansburgh Movies

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:30:22 GMT

OOC Post

I picked John Flansburgh as the fellow to play Howard.

Want to see him in action?

The trailer for "Gigantic: A Tale Of Two Johns":

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=trailer&id=1808465390

The video for "Birdhouse In Your Soul": (wearing a tie, bouncing around like a dope, playing guitar, doing some welding, smoking a pipe, riding a bike)

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=BIRDHOUSE%20IN%20YOUR%20SOUL&album=VIDEO&vid=9

Performing "Clap Your Hands" at "Bluestock" for Blue's Clues: (singing, dancing, wearing a bad windbreaker)

http://www.nickjr.com/home/shows/blue/bluestock_giants.jhtml

Improvving about the drummer and his contest with a robot drummer from MIT: (especially notable for bad sunglasses on Flans)

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=(BRAVE%20N.W.)%20ROBOT&album=VIDEO&vid=4

"Doctor Worm" video: spinning around with a guitar and a solemn look, then spazzing out

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=DR.%20WORM&album=VIDEO&vid=11

Singing about how humans are "King Weed". In a suit, wearing a 1940s journalist outfit.

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=(BRAVE%20N.W.)%20KING%20WEED&album=VIDEO&vid=2

Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow, singing, with horrible glasses, to an accordion. Good closeup (but very small). Yelling "Break out the cigars"...

http://www.tmbg.com/QCAM/proQcm.cgi?song=A%20TRANQUILBROW&album=QUICK+CAM&qcam=3

A song about growing older from the same science show as the others. Yelling about how time is marching on. Great suit, bad quality video.

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=(BRAVE%20N.W.)%20OLDER&album=VIDEO&vid=3

"The Guitar" video. Running up stairs, looking around like a spaz, repeatedly.

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=THE%20GUITAR&album=VIDEO&vid=10

"The Statue Got Me High" video. Driving a convertible with a cup of coffee. Singing and yelling in 60s-lookin' windbreaker and sunglasses. Laughing madly.

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=THE%20STATUE%20GOT%20ME%20HIGH&album=VIDEO&vid=13

"They'll Need A Crane" video. Mainly playing a guitar and spazzing, although there's a fun 'rowing a boat' sequence at the bridge...

http://www.tmbg.com/VIDEO/proVid.cgi?song=THEYLL%20NEED%20A%20CRANE&album=VIDEO&vid=14

"Working Undercover For The Man". Lipsyncing while in a knit winter cap. Unbelievably hilarious.

http://www.tmbg.com/QCAM/proQcm.cgi?song=WORKINGUNDERCOVER&album=QUICK+CAM&qcam=8

Enjoy!

Experimental Film....Yeah!

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 16:16:24 GMT

If you have to ask why this link is awesome, you just don't get it:

They Might Be Giants' "Experimental Film" video, at homestarrunner.com:

http://www.homestarrunner.com/expfilm.html

CinemaHelix catalog part 1

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 06:39:28 GMT

For budgetary reasons, I haven't been able to do a lot of films that aren't shorts. It gets very expensive to do a full 90 minute film. Here's a piece of the CinemaHelix Catalog, expect a second part later.

"Questions" (:58) An FBI agent must get information from a white supremacist about the location of an explosive that will kill a civil rights leader on Martin Luther King Day. An eerie denouement occurs when the memories triggered by the agent's skillful interrogation replay themselves in the tiny room. Digital camera.

"Rust And Eclairs" (:19) and "Magnetic North" (:39), two films set in the same junkyard in the same imaginary land, where people live in cemeteries and shop in landfills, and when they have restored the newness to the items, dispose of them in shops and stores before taking them apart and putting the raw materials back in nature. In this reverse world, love is arranged by divorce lawyers and thieves give the best gifts of all. Two whimsical looks at this odd world as wealthy people search the best junkyard in Country City for the very finest of garbage, and find there love, loss, and a delicious cup of coffee. "Rust And Eclairs" is on film. "Magnetic North" is digital.

"No Exit" (:80). An adaptation of the existential play by Jean-Paul Sartre starring the Milwaukee Central High School Drama Club. Unique in that it is the only filmed version of No Exit that takes place entirely outdoors, heightening the insane nature of the characters instead of the physicalness of the trap they're in. Digital.

As I mentioned before, there's more to come.

Logo...

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 22:11:05 GMT

The current logo for CinemaHelix Productions:

Movies to Watch For...and watch if you haven't yet..

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:10:53 GMT

"Good Night And Good Luck"

In this day of the USA-PATRIOT Act and various and multifarious mutant registration laws, this is a highly politically charged picture, detailing the battle between Joseph McCarthy and CBS. It's from the Warner Independent studio, which was the Clooney/Soderbergh "independent mainstream" production company that has brought a lot of interesting indie ideas into the mainstream. (See "The Jacket").

Trailer and production photos at:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/goodnightandgoodluck.html

"Paradise Now"

Another Warner Indepdendent production, from a Middle Eastern director, this details the journey of two suicide bombers who have been lifelong friends. They are separated at one point in the picture, and over the forty-eight hours between when they are fitted with bombs and when they are meant to blow themselves up, everything changes...

Trailer at:

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=trailer&id=1808658960&intl=us

And a movie you probably missed when it was out that you shouldn't have....

"Confidence"

A clear remake and reimagining of the classic "The Sting" with a terrific cast, a wall-chewing Dustin Hoffman performance, it's slick fun, if you're gonna make a heist movie, make it like this, where you're never quite sure, never quite a hundred percent sure until the cards are on the table. Underrated. Big time.

Trailer, stills and clips at:

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=trailer&id=1808403546

Pictures

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 03:49:13 GMT

cinemahelix, aka, Howard Aldrin.

No relation to Buzz.

Howard, carrying a steadicam battery pack

Howard, observing the set

Arrived...

Sun, 04 Sep 2005 23:35:14 GMT

I've arrived at the new school. I couldn't get a cab from the train station, and I only had about an hour in New York City between trains. It was amazing, I need to go back as soon as I can.

Fortunately the walk was nice, and I got some great stillframe cloud photography done. I could easily do a jittery animation with all the pictures I got, which would be a good backdrop for a credit sequence or perhaps a distant-feeling transition...

I went ahead and put it on film, we'll see if it needs digitization if I actually incorporate it into a project...

I also met Alison Blaire. Of course regular readers of CinemaHelix know that the whole enterprise only got started when I saw "Dazzler: The Movie" on a bootleg Chinese DVD (which she has now signed). I haven't yet done a full examination of this film, probably because it connected with me on a level that goes far beyond what it is as a film. It is shlock, there is no other word for it. Critics nailed it to the wall, and yet even their criticisms have an undertone to them that makes the criticism part of the experience for me as well. If a visitor from another planet watched the movie, they would be baffled as to what it's actually about, and why it is so affecting to many people. You only can understand the impact of the movie if you understand that every part of it - including the prejudices, fears, hopes and beliefs of the viewer, and the critic, and the Hollywood establishment, and the cast, crew and writers, are all Americans, all born in this century, and if you know the full extent of what that means. Even I don't think I can quite say I understand this film that fully. All I know is that I'm glad she signed my copy.

Ms. Blaire said that I would be learning self-defense, as well as about my 'other abilities'. What could I say? Knowing anything about them would be learning. How long am I going to have the luxury of not needing to know how to defend myself? The raw physical nature of the world is certainly going to impinge itself on my work if I successfully make the statements I wish to make in my films. It is pure folly to believe that if I say what I - eventually - intend to say, that someone will not attempt to silence me. If nobody does, it will be because I have failed as a filmmaker. In "Aguirre, The Wrath of God", the titular character decapitates a man during a conversation with such quick brutality that the severed head finishes the sentence it had started in life. It's the act of speaking that's important. Not whether the head's on the shoulders.

That movie connects with me on another level as well. The story goes that while making "Aguirre", conditions deteriorated so much at the remote rain forest location where the movie was being filmed - crew members suffering from illness, even starvation, desertions rampant, accidents common - the director Werner Herzog put a gun to Klaus Kinski's head and forced him to go on-camera and act.

When Kinski denied this story, he added, darkly, "I was the only one on the set with a gun."

It's the expression of an idea that counts. Not who is holding the gun. Herzog believed in something called the "voodoo of location" - that if he had a perfect special effects budget and had constructed the rain forest on a stage in such a manner that no audience member could possibly see through the trickery - that the film would still have lacked some dark spirit that comes from actually being there.

That is one reason why this private, hidden school, seems right for my work. What does it mean to hide or to be hidden? To be revealed or to be found? To be questioned or to give answers? What is the difference?

That, (and making fun movies), is what CinemaHelix is all about.

Next update: less heavy, more practical.

Thoughts On "The Bicycle Thief"

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 03:47:13 GMT

"The Bicycle Thief" is one of the all-time great movies. It received an honorary Oscar in 1949. It is a story that operates on many levels. There are some who see in it Marxism - others call it Chaplinesque social observational comitragedy. The neorealist movement was one in which directors used "real people" in place of actors, although of course actors are real people too.

I see it as a parable, a skillfully told parable, complete with simple situations in which we all can imagine we find ourselves in, simple characters that we can see facets of ourselves in, or facets of others, and a quick beginning and a quick ending. There is no meandering in "The Bicycle Thief". Everything we learn in this film has a place, from the wise woman who predicted that the protagonist would find a job, to the final horrible temptation that, if it were not for the rest of the movie, would seem petty and absurd.

What is the lesson for the young filmmaker or screenwriter? It is that parables are told with simplicity, not with complexity - the audience supplies the complexity. You can slash scenes, gut dialogue, excise whole subplots in a parable. But also don't be afraid to fully explore the simple space you have created. It would have been an easy gimmick, and well within the powers of De Sica, to do as Hitchcock did in "Rope" and simply follow the bicycle from scene to scene. We would know everything we know about this film, and perhaps more (as the actual eponymous character we know very little about, at least for certain). It would have given us the same events, the same characters, the same scenes, but very much a different feeling, to lose all the things that happen away from the bicycle.

It would be too presumptuous to ask God that someday I make a film as good as the Bicycle Thief. But after seeing the restored DVD, I am full of desire to - at the very least - shoot a scene as achingly good as the restaurant scene. Baby steps, readers. Baby steps.

I have departed Wisconsin on a train, bound for New York City. It has not been an easy trip, it was not an easy departure. It was blunted, they left me at the station with one big suitcase in each hand. CinemaHelix itself, the actual physical means of making films, went ahead of me by UPS, but I anticipate that I'll arrive before it will. I wonder why the train ticket, why not an airplane, but I didn't wonder enough to ask, and now the train shuffles back and forth and the sky above is dark. Around me are fields and towns and nothing in between. Nothing at all.

"Why should I kill myself worrying when I'll end up just as dead?"