“In Texas, we have something we call “the Cortez moment,” which refers to when the great Spanish explorer and conquistador of Mexico came and set up camp and then burned his boats. The phrase “burn the boats” means there’s nothing but forward, onward, no turning back or running home scared. When you move here, if you’re any good at all, you burn the boats.”
Mark Duplass gave five abbreviated tips to filmmakers on Twitter and it’s actually incredible advice.
1) Minor in film, and major in either madarin or spanish (u can always find well-paid temp work translating while u learn to make films)
2) Make a ton of shorts, under 10 minutes, cheaply. If u r like me, your first ones will suck. Then, one of them won’t. That’s your voice
3) Take that short to every film festival you can. Have a feature film written that can be made cheaply (under $10K) & represents your voice
4) Find someone to give you $10K. Spend two years ONLY on that feature. Test it on people. Be honest w/yourself. Don’t stop til it’s great.
5) Be nice. To everyone. Always. All my nice friends keep working. The assholes get weeded out. Good luck!
I’ll be really disappointed if they don’t carry Grain Belt.
Monday night motherfuckers.
“Maybe I had miscalculated what was left of my life. Maybe it wasn’t loose change. Or, actually, the whole thing was loose change, from start to finish - many, little moments, each holiday, each Valentine, each year unbearably repetitive and yet somehow always new. You could never buy anything with it, you could never cash it in for something more valuable or more whole. It was just all these days, held together only by the fragile memory of one person - or, if you were lucky, two. And because of this, this lack of inherent meaning or value, it was stunning. Like the most intricate, radical piece of art, the kind of art I was always trying to make. It dared to mean nothing and so demanded everything of you.”
Jenny shooting film at golden hour
This video of two sixth grade metalheads from Flatbush is the best thing I’ve seen all week.
(via Dan)
“Don’t let the fuckers get ya. They can either help you, or not help you, but they can’t stop you.”
With up to six XLR inputs, the Zoom H6 is a game changer for low budget filmmakers.
Sunset Park
Current read.
Letterman asking all of his musical guests if they rented their drums is my favorite thing EVER.
“A bunch of people with no formal education whatsoever sit around discussing the time they read the Old Testament in Hebrew. They then tell us all how to live.”
“Art comes out of failure. You have to try things out. You can’t sit around, terrified of being incorrect.”
I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art by John Baldessari
