May 1st
11:41
11:41
Tiscali: It’s worth noting that many of the cast come from famous or dysfunctional families, a bit like the Tenenbaums.
Wes Anderson: It’s interesting. You know, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, certainly Anjelica Huston, all those families are real achievers, you know, and fame is an issue for their whole families. For Anjelica Huston (daughter of John Huston) I think there’s definitely things for her to relate to in terms of the character that Hackman is playing. Hackman - I didn’t know much of anything about his background, but after we’d finished the movie I saw an episode of Inside The Actors Studio which he did while we were filming. And he talked about his father, and it seemed to really relate to what he’d been playing in the movie - it caught me so much off-guard. You know, there was no dialogue between us about it, but it was clearly something he couldn’t have helped but to tap into.Tiscali: What did he say in the programme?
Wes Anderson: His father left his family when he was 13 or so, and he just described this moment when Hackman and his friends were playing in the street, and his father drove by. And Hackman saw him driving by, and his father kind of waved from the window but didn’t stop the car. And it was the last he saw him for ten years. And Hackman had really choked up when he was telling it. It was very moving. I’d never heard anything about this at all. And he’d been playing this father who abandons his family for years and years. (via)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [2011]: David Fincher’s Commentary
So the title sequence. We had this cover of “Immigrant Song”. I was riding in a van in Sweden and had my iPhone with me…and I was listening to Led Zeppelin, and this song came on and I-I mean, aside from the incredibly, inanely obvious: “I come from the land of the ice and snow”… I just like the idea of an anthemnal, incredibly famous track that could be wailed by a woman. And I called Trent and I said: “What do you think of a cover of ‘Immigrant Song’?” I think at first he thought I was joking [laughing]. And I said, “No, imagine, you know, a woman’s voice singing this.” And he did a version just to the music and I listened to it and I thought it’s evocative of what I think Lisbeth is— Not thinking, but, you know, sort of her marrow. What’s happening down deep inside her bones. And we got Karen O. Ren Klyce gave us Karen’s e-mail address and we asked her to do this. And I think in about three or four days they had a version of this song that was— To my mind, it was undeniable. It just seemed like such a great sort of kindred spirit to what I thought Lisbeth was about. And then we needed visuals to go with it. I went to Tim Miller at Blur, and I said: “What can you do along the lines of a nightmare? What would Lisbeth’s nightmare be?” And he came back with about 50 different little scene cards and we whittled it down to about 20-25. And I turned to him and said: “That looks great. You got eight weeks. Go.”
” Well, okay. I’m just gonna say it. There’s a scene at the end of the movie when George Clooney’s character, myself, my cousin and the opossum, Kylie, are all on a little motorcycle driving back to our home. And we’ve just rescued my cousin. And we stop and we see a wolf on a distant hill, and it’s a really beautiful, beautiful scene. It’s like so heart-warming because it’s just a beautiful moment between these foxes and little animals and this really like mysterious wolf who we’ve heard about the entire movie and who doesn’t talk in this scene and he’s not wearing clothes. He’s kind of, he represents I guess, the wild. He’s a wild wolf and animal, and it’s a beautiful moment where they have this great connection, and in that moment, it really like to me the point of that scene is let’s keep on being free. Let’s keep on being animals. And it’s such an uplifting moment, and like when I’ve seen it with audiences, a bunch of people break into huge cheers and hooting. It’s such an awesome, awesome scene. It really just blows my mind.
And actually, when we did the movie, you know, we did the movie basically live together as a cast. We didn’t do the scenes, none of us really did it separately in recording booths, which is how typical animated movies are done. This one, Wes Andersen had us literally go and move onto a farm together and we all lived together. And we’d wake up in the morning, have breakfast and then if there was a scene, for instance, that took place underneath a tree, George Clooney and Bill Murray, everyone, would walk over to the tree that we’d find, we’d take our scripts out and we’d just start acting out the scenes. And it was basically like doing a movie just with no cameras. So there were actors, the director, Wes, and a sound man. And we were running around, growling and hooting and hollering, and if we had to eat a bunch of food like in the movie we always are eating like French toast or biscuits, we would literally be eating French toast and biscuits and toast, I mean it was so much fun.
Anyways, one day when we were doing this particular scene with this wolf, we were all about to shoot it and then Wes said, you know we should really get someone to play the wolf so that the guys have someone to act opposite, and we looked around and Bill Murray was standing there with his hands in his pockets. He took his hands out and said, “I can be the wolf.” And Bill Murray just took off running, or I guess trotting. And he ran, ran, ran, ran really far away until he was tiny. And he turned around and actually became the wolf, like he, it’s almost as if he embodied the wolf. And he acted it out for us, and it was so inspiring and so beautiful. And Wes actually took out his camera phone, filmed it, and then sent that footage to the animators to base the wolf off of Bill Murray, so Bill Murray is the uncredited wolf in this movie. And he actually, it was so good, it was as if he practiced it. I mean, it was incredible, his wolf performance. So, I think because of what the scene means, what it represents in the movie and the great warm message that it has in the scene, plus knowing the behind the scenes, what went into that scene, I think that’s my favorite scene in the movie.”
-Jason Schwartzman
I’m a quitter
So, I quit my job yesterday. For the first time in my life. I did it for a lot of reasons, but the main one is that it made me intensely unhappy. I hated working nights. I hated that I was never really “off.” Even when I wasn’t at work, I always had one eye on my tether (aka work phone) to see what crisis might be emerging that I’d have to deal with later. For five days a week (plus one day every weekend), I was a man divided.
I walked away from making the most money I’ve ever made. Not a lot, but enough to probably get my own place, pay off credit cards, maybe even get a new car in a few years. And I almost talked myself into staying. Almost convinced myself that being a “grown-up” meant shutting up and accepting doing a job that I didn’t like because that’s what an adult does.
But I couldn’t do it. I realized that a couple of weeks ago. I came in exhausted from editing Channel 101 stuff all night, then getting up early to help pull the screening together. My boss looked me over and said I looked like crap. I explained what I’d been doing and he took a pause, then said “Do you even get paid for that?” I explained that I didn’t, that I did it because I loved doing it…and he just shook his head.
And I realized that I’d rather be struggling and doing something that I love than financially secure and doing something that I hate. I took a leap. And now I’ll be out of work in a couple of weeks and I don’t have anything lined up. And I’m scared shitless. But I know that I did the right thing. For the first time in my life, I took the kind of stand that I didn’t think I was capable of taking. If I was happy to take the easy path, the convenient one, then I wouldn’t have left home. And I wouldn’t have followed the dream that I moved out here to chase.
There are jobs out there that I will love. I know that because I’ve had one or two of them. I just have to find them.
This job was the latest excuse in a series of excuses for me not to do what I came here to do. And those excuses need to go away. So if I hit you up for job leads in the next couple of weeks, I’m sorry. I’m just another guy out there who wants to do something that he loves. The money’s just a fringe benefit.
This is precisely what it takes.
Emphasis mine.
I wanna thank my daughter, Alice, for being the funniest person in my family. For coining phrases like “I want to go to there” and sometimes just putting on pretend make-up in the mirror, and she’ll turn to me and say, “I look like Barack Obama.” She has somehow gotten it in her head that it’s a good thing to resemble a famous politician. I don’t know where she got that idea.
Yesterday I went and saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was great, I loved it, and I’ll see it again. The problem I had was with the three assholes behind me who added commentary the entire time. 3 film nerds who needed to dissect the work right then and there. Let us watch the movie first, take it all in, and then when it comes out on blu-ray, DVD, On-demand (I’m not playing favorites) you can gather round the television and probe it to no end.
I’ve seen at least one movie a week, every week, for the past year and folks talking during the movie is becoming common place. Just shut the fuck up for two hours. If you have questions about the film, save it for the end. Most likely the person sitting next to you doesn’t have the answers because they’re also seeing the movie for the first time. Take the film in, let it sit for awhile, its probably not that complicated. Most movies these days are popcorn fodder anyway.
If all else fails we hire new ushers, my vote is the creatures from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode “Hush”, and have them take your voice box until the movie is over. Don’t forget to pick it up on the way out.
December 29th
20:55
20:55
(via Of motorcycles and movies)
About a year ago, I finished reading the final instalment of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium trilogy”. I found these Swedish crime novels absolutely gripping—and not just because the heroine Lisbeth Salander rides a motorcycle. In two weeks, the US movie adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will be released—so here’s a timely look at how the motorcycles used in the film were prepared. The job was given to Justin Kell of Glory Motor Works in LA, and it’s an insight into a rarely-seen aspect of the film-making process.
“I got the call to meet with [director] David Fincher and discuss motorcycles for a new film he was doing,” says Kell. “I bought all three Larsson books and read them in three days: the character of Lisbeth Salander is killer. As I read the books, I kept thinking that Lisbeth’s bike would be the kind of bike most 20-somethings with limited financial recourses would ride. She wouldn’t have an expensive modern bike: she would have an inexpensive older bike that would be customized to fit her personality.”
Originally, the producers considered using modern bikes. “I had to convince Fincher that we could build vintage bikes to be as reliable as modern bikes. David leaves no detail untouched: he knows that a broken motorcycle can delay production and cost the film company thousands of dollars.” Kell also had to keep the art director happy, make the bike fit the conceptual drawings, and build bikes that would start and perform whenever called upon.
He had 30 days to find, buy and rebuild three late-60s Honda CB350s. “I went after low mileage, original machines in stock condition. We looked at updating charging systems and upgrading performance.” The script called for a lot of high speed riding, plus off-road action on ice and snow. Bikes in movies are usually started and shut down hundreds of times during a day of filming: this means that starter motors have to be rebuilt, and three-wire high-output charging systems installed.
Kell also increased the battery box size, so he could fit a higher amperage sealed battery. “The lighting is always super important in a Fincher film, so the bikes were fitted with HID lamps. All the metal parts were stripped and cleaned, and sent out for paint, powdercoating, polishing or cadmium plating. “We ended up powdercoating the wheels and using bigger gauge SS spokes. We replaced everything: new clutches, new brakes, new wiring harnesses and every fastener on the bike. The motors were torn down to the cranks, we trued the flywheels, did valve jobs and replaced pistons and rings.” The carbs were rebuilt and the fuel tanks were stripped and re-lined. Flat track style seats were installed, covered in vintage glove leather.
“We had to build one bike first to get the final approval from David,” says Kell. “We finished that one in about two weeks.” Fincher gave the okay to build two more bikes, and cast Rooney Mara to play Lisbeth Salander. “She was sent over to me to start teaching her to ride,” says Kell. “She had never been on a bike before, so we had to start easy. I’ve trained many actors to ride over the years, and I must say that Rooney was one of the best. She was fearless, but smart. In three days, we had her doing everything that she needed to do on camera at 35 mph.
The final two weeks were “mayhem. Getting three full rebuilds together at the same time requires a lot of diplomacy and hundred dollar bills. We had 30 days straight of 16-hour days, but we finished the bikes on schedule. The day after we turned the last screw, the bikes were in crates on the way to Stockholm for the shoot.”
The bikes are now back in LA though, and Kell is tearing them down yet again—this time to prepare for the second film.
I’d also like to point out that Viggo Mortensen is one of my favorite human beings.
"So, Talking Heads is my favorite band. So one day… you know all of those restaurant scenes in ‘Groundhog Day’? Where it’s the same day over again? We spent a long time at the restaurant and I’m sitting at one of the tables at the restaurant. I’m just sitting there eating, but I had to be there all the time. And one day he was standing outside of the restaurant between takes and he was getting down with some Talking Heads. And I was so happy that he was listening to Talking Heads because it’s my favorite band. So I couldn’t contain myself and I went over and I’m like, “You like the Talking Heads?” And he looked at me like basically that was the dumbest question in the history of the world. Which it was. He was standing there listening to the Talking Heads. He was like, “Yes, I like the Talking Heads.” Then I was embarrassed and I ran away."
— Michael Shannon, on set with Bill Murray on Groundhog Day.
