Silent Film Stars and napping on the job...

I am a research assistant for one of my professors. Technically, I am an editorial assistant on a book that is forthcoming on women silent film pioneers. No, no, no, not actresses, but writers and directors and producers and other such positions of power that most people assume only men held in those days...it turns out there were waaaaaay more women working in the silent era of film, than in the 30s, 40s or 50s! If you're sort of curious what it is all about, you can get an idea by clicking here (this is the old site, the professor I work for recently recently left Duke):
http://literature.aas.duke.edu/wfp/index.html

There are also lots of fabulous pictures too, like this one of Natacha Rambova, who was a rumored lesbian, professional dancer, production and art designer, married to Valentino and born in Salt Lake City!

She also designed one of the most visually sumptuous and yet utterly stilted and boring films ever, Nazimova's SALOME (which featured an all gay man cast, which Nazimova said was a tribute to Oscar Wilde). Rambova's style in this particular film looked like a Beardsley drawing come to life and remains one of the best art nouveau designed films ever.

She is just one example of many. When I go home for Christmas I will likely spend some time at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU which has a huge repository of film ephemera, including Cecil B. DeMille's papers. He hired and used (in more ways than one if you get my drift) numerous women to write the scenarios for his silent films. So, over the holiday I'll be collecting documents and photographs. I mean really, what can be more fun than doing research for your Christmas holiday?

I keep falling asleep on the job. It's not cause it's boring. It's cause I'm not sleeping enough at night. Which is to say, I am trundling off to slumberland RIGHT NOW!

You Know You Love Me! XO XO Gossip Girl.

So yes, sometimes I watch Gossip Girl. It's all Rashi fault if you must know. Rashi is a friend from school who told me it was her favorite show. I laughed until I realized she wasn't kidding. She was dead serious. Granted she is like 12 (okay, 25) and I am 40 (not true...but closer to 40 than 20). But she was going to drag me into loving it too, regardless of how I might feel about spoiled New York rich kids.

I hate spoiled New York rich kids.

And yet, Gossip Girl is like watching Beverly Hills 90210 15 years ago. It's a soap opera for teenagers. Spoiled, wealthy upper east siders. The kind of people I loathe going to school with and should loathe watching on a tv show. But I guess I am a 33 year old teen because I am strangely hooked. And today it paid off.

I am producing a classmates thesis film. It's about teenagers in Middle America. And half of the girls who auditioned mentioned auditioning to be on the show Gossip Girl. And they all essentially look like this:

The director and assistant director had never seen Gossip Girl (and said girls who dressed like this were not appropriate for the film), but there was something comforting that I, as the oldest person in the room, knew a lot about teenage culture.

Making arty movies and producing like crazy!

It's November. It's also 64 degrees outside. This little body of mine (well...maybe not that little) doesn't know what to wear! Coat? Sweater? Skivvies? It's so hard. Maybe it's why I have banned getting dressed ever again until the weather decides to behave and make up its mind.

I have been producing and production designing up a storm. What this means to all you lay people is that I have been making all the plans and prep work for a film a classmate is directing (everything from finding locations, casting and figuring out how to feed the crew). Part of the time it's fun. The other part of the time I want to rip all of my hair out.

Production design, on the other hand, is almost always fun. Production design is all the art work involved in the movie. Making sets, designing rooms, finding props and (sometimes) doing the wardrobe. It's sort of like interior decorating. The last film I worked on the people were catholic and I ended up using this cross in the film:I don't know why this photo makes me laugh so hard. Or why my hair looks so weird. But the cross is pretty scary I think. Someone used it as a hammer at one point on set, which I think might be sacrilegious.

Been working on some experimental stuff. Like this film I shot of my best friend Karin in Israel last summer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6c0Ynudsdk

or this, which is supposed to capture the frenetic energy of getting ready every morning while I was there (make sure you click on the "watch in high quality" button):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_2GjY_mbtA

Israel was lovely by the way. You should go. I enlarged my student loans to shoot some of my pre-thesis work there. What's another $5000 when I am already over $100,000 in debt?

Hanging in Georgia

So.

At the moment I am in Georgia at my friend Molly's wedding. I drove down from New York with two friends from school, Beth and Rammy. Beth borrowed her parents' car and Rammy found us a place to stay for free in Raleigh, NC last night. And now we are in Savannah at the Holiday Inn. Tonight was the rehearsal dinner...lots of beautiful New York people transported to the deep South...I found myself wanting to ask, "Ummm...excuse me, but I forgot my headshot and I am not really sure I am pretty enough to be at this reception..."

Those of you who know me really well, know that I adore road trips. We stopped along the way in South Carolina called South of the Border. So so so offensive to Mexican people. And yet I laughed at all the stereotypes, which makes me a very bad person.

Whoa! You all probably thought I died!!!

Well, my dears...I didn't die. In fact, I've just been in New York City making movies. And I have to say, it has been the hardest two years of my life. By a LONG shot.

The good news is, with the end of course work, I have to produce a bunch of films in order to graduate. Which mean I don't have to go to class. The bad news is that i need to find job fast!

Been working on a bunch of little films. Just recut an experimental music film. Check it out here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=N3jqbFPab9E

I am also starting to write grants for two different films I am producing. One is shooting in a month! Eeeek! If you're ever in the mood to donate to up and coming directors and film projects (and you want a tax write off) let me know. Seriously. We have fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas. This means you donate money to the organization, then they cut us a check, and provide you with a tax write off. Yes, the non-profit world likes to call it fiscal sponsorship. My friend Catherine, who is my sometimes producing partner, likes to call it legal money laundering. Regardless, in an imperfect world, it gets the work done.

I just got an educational loan increase to go to Israel for the summer to make a short documentary about Darfur refugees in Tel Aviv. It will be my non-thesis film. I am interested in displacement, and I have a few connections there (not to mention my best friend Karin), so my costs should stay fairly low. Plus, I am already so incredibly far beyond what I can ever make up in debt, that $5,000 more doesn't seem like a lot. It is sometimes hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that I'll be close to $200,000 in debt when this is all said and done.

I worked five jobs this spring. I am seriously a masochist. Thankfully, most of them were freelance...and all but two of them are over! But having enough money to be able to pay rent is great! And if I hadn't worked so hard I never would've have been able to afford Israel.

Life is good. I promise to try and keep in better touch.

Seriously.