On-Location Production Stills from ASHLEY

On a cold, surreal day in March 2011, Ashley star Tony Lee Gratz and I drove to the Motor City for some relatively inexpensive, apocalypse-esque production design, courtesy of capitalism and the death of the American Union. Suffice to say, the location is perfect for an End-Of-The-World feel; depressing as it may be. The middle building in the B/W picture directly below this text was used by us a shooting site for two reasons: One, it was adjacent to the abandoned, but picturesque Michigan Central Train Depot (one of the primary set pieces in the film) and Two, it was absolutely bizarre. Apparently made out of cork and hand painted by a pastel-crazed schizophrenic, this was only one in a long series of breathtakingly strange images provided to us, free of charge, by Motown.T he Hotel on the left still stands but these two homes were demolished in July, 2013. This serves as a fitting tribute to one of the many Ashley shooting sites that have since been destroyed. 

Favorite Scenes: I Love Frances Ha

One of the great intangibles about being a devoted and sometimes obsessive movie connoisseur is that you are usually able to identify with ease your favorite scene from a new film immediately upon its conclusion. And sometimes, when the stars are perfectly aligned, this scene makes you fall in love with the film long before it ends. So regardless of the denouement, regardless of the 3rd act, regardless of the resolution, the scene is so strong, and says so much about you and the Universe or reality in which you inhabit, the conclusion doesn't matter, because the scene itself was enough. Fortunately, Greenberg Director Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale) second effort with the uniquely charming Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha, is so good that the film that surrounds this core scene has several near-perfect moments, some are fantastically whimsical, poignant, and at times melancholy  but none have the feeling, the emotion, truth as this one. Off the record, I love Greta Gerwig; she is an odd mash-up of all of the great and former lovers in my life - she possesses all of their bizarre bravado, delicate wit, savvy intellect, and contempt for conformity. Here she perfectly describes what it is TO BE IN LOVE - perfectly articulated by a woman who is not motivateed by a man. This is refreshing as fuck. I fucking love this movie for it represents everything that is missing in the vast majority of American films, women that are both strong, confused, intelligent, happy, sad, uncertain, brave, scared, the gamut. Frances is not identified through her sexuality and this film is not about her trying to find a man to further complete this identification. In fact, this film is almost androgynous in this respect. Most films take the position that a woman only has one if we understand her through the eyes of a relationship-status. Her sexuality must be understood, it must be apparent. Frances Ha takes an almost groundbreaking approach  to this issue by keeping it squarely on the backburner because sexual status doesn't really matter when we are trying to understand who she is. The bullshit pressure many women or films in general feel to complete the standard courtship to coupling ritual is ridiculous. It is persistently misogynistic and dull and creates this impression that a woman's place is to complete this tired, conventional coupling cycle and not grow as an individual. Watch this scene, fall in love with it as I did, and I guarantee you'll fall in love with the movie. It's a beautifully made take on the rites-of-passage and coming-of- age woes of a late-20s dreamer. 

Jeff Scott Townsend's Blind

   One of the benefits of shooting a massive art film that requires a great deal of non-diegetic insert work, aka "B-roll" or 2nd Unit work, is that you are left with large amounts of supplemental material. Make no mistake, I have tried extremely hard to keep everything I have shot (not necessarily for but with Ashley in mind) in the film (over 6,000 distinct shots and counting), but sometimes there is redundancy (for example, I have footage at this same location with several actresses for reasons all my own). But, when you have an exquisite, picturesque location (such as the Kenosha harbor at sunrise or sundown) coupled with a vibrant, charming actress there is no such thing as footage left on the cutting room floor.
   The footage you are about to see was taken in early 2012 (this further illustrates my point on how long this film has been in production) and was shot as background/flashback footage; "memory gospels" for the main character - and this is how the narrative is delivered throughout the film. This footage was going to end up as gorgeous "filler" for my complex, byzantine web of an End Titles sequence; a sprawling, 14-minute montage comprised of over 4 hours of completely unused 2nd Unit work. But, the images were so beautiful, I thought they deserved a second life beyond playing second fiddle to credits. I started thinking about a short film with music as its primary narrative drive or what some call a music video (I loathe this term, it seems so antiquated now, and seems to short-change both the music, and the musician, not to mention the film-making apparatus of the entire process). And then I thought to myself, what piece of music? I needed something that was also in dire need of a second chance; a harmonic, whimsical, and tranquil tune that invokes such feelings as love, passion, melancholy, and most of all, hope. Where can I find another artist similar to myself with a library of previously unreleased work? Hmmmmmm?
   Director David Lynch (Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway) famously said that image and music were "married" when the symbiosis worked in such a fashion where you could not imagine one without the other. Dove composer Jeff Scott Townsend's song Blind was amazingly subjected to what I like to call the "Lost Works" category; it had not found a home, but that does not mean that it did not deserve one. Quite the opposite actually. I knew the footage below required a strong piece of emotional support via music; something melodic but impactful, catchy yet poignant, emotional and playful. I first heard Blind months ago and immediately said that I would find the images to articulate the songwriter's specific emotions (knowing true genesis and inspiration is not impossible), although it could take some time to identify such specific beauty. On Thursday, I realized this footage could represent the nucleus of such an endeavor - 72 hours later, low and behold, we have the most efficient inspiration possible.
   The video below represents the pairing of a very gifted musician and a filmmaker with an eye for the natural world. Blind was photographed on-location in the marina district of downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin. This short film represents the end result of about 2 hours worth of shooting - exactly 184 setups over the course of two different days at the exact same beach. The footage with Annie Walaszek was completed on a cold, windy day - January 27th, 2012, to be exact; while the sunrise footage was shot on the chilly morning of March 27th, 2011. Once again, this should demonstrate how long I have been collecting footage for Ashley and should also underscore why you should never, ever delete or discard anything. Metaphors abound. Enjoy!

Doll suicide: The End of an Era

Turns out Marlene was haunted after all - sometime after the conclusion of Halloween, she unlocked my office door, snuck out onto the porch, re-locked the door from my the inside with her weird powers and then waited until I woke this morning to do the unthinkable: doll suicide. Yup, Marlene knows that every morning I open the rear door, check the temperature outside, and then start my day. So she waited patiently all night so I could see her do the unthinkable. Turns out my sister was right. And now sadly, this tragic tale of  irksome plastic possession is over. Until next time readers.