Director's Quotes Pt. 2

'Pick up a camera, shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as a director. Now you're a Director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.'

-James Cameron

'I love making movie. If I wasn't paid to do it, I would pay to do it.'

-David Lean

'Follow your vision. At the same time, be not afraid of solitude.'

-Werner Herzog

'...in a sense making movies is itself a quest...it seemed to me a wonderful idea that you could remake the world, hopefully a bit better, braver, and more beautiful than it was presented to us.'

-John Boorman

'No matter where cinema goes, we cannot afford to lose sight of its beginnings.'

-Martin Scorsese

Directors' Quote pt.1

Over time I've written down quotes from directors that I've come across in a interview or book. These quotes inspire and help to keep me focused on my journey as a director/writer and some I just find to be just plain truthful:

'...there's nowhere to hide as a director you are completely exposed when you write and direct a film. It directly reflects you and you have to be willing to accept what that is when it's finished.'
           -Ryan Gosling


'When I put on my directors uniform, so to speak, I'm out of danger. Once I arrive on the set with a galloping fever, but as soon as I looked through the lens it went away. When you're filming you feel like yourself again, a director, without age, outside of time, without infirmities, invulnerable.'
          -Federico Fellini

'To make a film is to improve life.'
          -Francois Truffaut


'Directors don't make pictures, directors make things that your suppose to get an emotional hit off of.
Your suppose to feel something, its behavior, color...'
          -David Fincher

'In the end it became obvious. You (as director) don't make a performance. A director allows a performance. This is very much the case.'
          -David Fincher



...more to come

'LONDON' is in town!

After 5 months of searching for a actress who would be bold enough to take on the role of 'London' in the up coming feature 'I am the Beauty of this World', the search is over! I am happy to announce that actress Samanta Castilho has been cast as the streetwalker 'London'.

Production begins May 2014.

Novel in the works...

I will be adapting a script I completed back in 2000 into a novel beginning early next year. Its overall about the lives of young adults living in New York. The story interweaves various relationships, very Altmanesque if you will. I was intrigued by storytellers who told stories with a big ensemble. I started writing novels when I was a teenager but have stopped to focus on screenwriting. Its going to be a thrill to get back to writing a novel. It's untitled so for now it'll be called the untitled Young Adults novel.

Love story on the web!

'Fumeu [me+u+future]' is the latest work of mine done for a wonderful web series called Ms. Monologue. The creator/producer of the web series is Latresa Baker. She is also the lead actress in 'Fumeu'. She emailed me one night after meeting at a network party and offered me this position to direct and write a episode for her web series. Long story short I said yes and after days of revisions on the script and finding a lead man, whom I only had one leading man in mind to play the role, no rehearsal, meetings with cast and crew, one day of shooting, in the cold on the rooftop, that went into the night. And out came what you will see on the link below.

'Fumeu' is a modern day love story. Enjoy and tell others!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBProILur6Q

3+ Months and counting...

Production on  'I am the Beauty of this World' has stalled because of the role of 'London' not being filled in yet. I am still optimistic about it.  It has never taken this long for me to cast a role before. This is the kind of supporting role that seems to scare actress', a role that has been looked at as being too 'intimate' and 'physical'. But the search continues...she's out there somewhere :-).

Book of Towers Pt. 3: Woody Allen

Conversation with Woody Allen by Eric Lax is one of the most entertaining and one of the most insightful oral bio's I've read about any film director/writer. Woody Allen really opens up in this incredibly well written book not only about filmmaking but how a artist sees his own work and how he doesn't compromise. Woody knows his audience but not only that he knows what works for him, he's stuck to it for over 4 decades.

I found his honesty to be key in this book. It seemed like he spoke fearlessly and loose enough to be reminded of the kinds of characters he has portrayed in his own movies.


'If you divorce yourself from hearing about yourself and your work, which is not all that hard to do, then I'd advise you not to believe the compliments and the good things said about you. A good portion of them are insincere, a good portion are wrong-which leaves a very small portion to get excited over. Most hype about your work is show business flattery. Always remembr : Many of those honoring you at one of those black-tie events on T.V. won't return your phone calls a week after the dinner.'

-Woody Allen

I've seen a good amount of his movie. Annie Hall I thought was hilarious, but recently, Midnight in Paris I think is a brilliant, funny movie with so much heart and the opening is such splendid filmmaking!  Cassandra's Dream, with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, was shocking, twisty, just plain good writing as far as narration goes and the choices the characters made was so natural and real.

Eric Lax asked Woody Allen: 'How much can criticism help or hinder your work?'
Woody replied: '...the artist can't adjust his work according to criticism. ...I'm not going to change my style or my subject matter because someone criticizes it. I couldn't if I wanted to. ...The work exists independent of all the talk about it. If the thing is good, it remains good despite the pro or con about it. And if its not good, its drifts away no matter how popular it may seem at the moment. Of course, its nice to have that popular moment, no matter how fleeting, because by the time they realize the movie stinks, you have their money.'

'It [making movies] has to be fun when you're doing it because that's the only pleasure you get from it. When you're younger you think fame and the financial rewards are going to transform your life but then you find that they don't really do the trick...I don't have any DVD's of my films. I couldn't care less about them. I did them. Its like poking around half-eaten slices of pizza. It was last night's take out-fun last night, but I ate it.'

-Woody Allen

Searching for 'LONDON'

Who will play the role of  'London' is an on going search for my new movie 'I am the Beauty of this World'.  There are a couple of actress' now that are interested.

1st day of production was on July 22nd. It was a rainy night but we still were able to get the scene done. Production stills from that night will be released soon on the internet.

Production picks back up on August 17th, 2013.

I am 'Crytsal'...I am 'Ivy'

Tricia Alawit (left), Bruna Berney (right) will be performing as 'Crystal and 'Ivy' in the 2nd part of the prostitute trilogy entitled 'I am the Beauty of this World'.  These are two faces the cinema world will remember!

I'm so happy to have Diana Margulies return as the make up artist on 'I am the Beauty of this World.'
She has done make up for my award winning short  'Beautiful Women Wake Up Early'  and is attached to doing the same on the upcoming marital drama 'All the Saints'. 

The role of 'IVY'

I have wrapped up writing the third part of the prostitution short movies trilogy, which is titled 'The Attainable Glow that Dies'. And by some time next week the role of Ivy who appears in the second part 'I am the Beauty of this World', will be selected! I am extremely excited about this whole endeavor, which I never planned but it just ended up turning into a trilogy that I am very happy with. Both parts 2 and 3 are going to have rewrites, some adjusting, but overall my vision of it is becoming more and more clear and by the 3rd part the cast grows-which is a good thing.

Stay tune to who will be playing the role of Ivy and the other cast members that will be added as well.

Prostitution sequel: 'I am the Beauty of this World'

Production for my new short movie 'I am the Beauty of this World' begins this august. This is a sequel to 'Happiness is You', which is in post-production. 'Happiness is You' is about the relationship between madam Flame and her prostitute Dollie, in how Flame decides to give up her crazy life and leave Dollie, who looks at her as a mother figure, after suffering from a stroke that could of killed her.

'Happiness is You' is looking to be released early next year.

'I am the Beauty of this World' explores unflinchingly Crystal's life after she has been gang raped and now is thinking about giving up the life as a prostitute. As we journey with her we are introduced to a one of her friends, Ivy, who is also a prostitute, a prescription drug addict, and to her surprise ends up pregnant.

From 'Happiness is You' we have Dominique Mitchell returning as 'Flame'/Tamara. New to the cast so far is the very talented, courageous actress Tricia Alawit.

I am looking to release 'I am the Beauty of this World' next summer. More updates to come.

A complete 'Moon' Part 2

Me and actress/model Diana Budur has finished another draft of 'At the Moons Edge'. The script gets better and better. This writing process with Diana has been a learning process. It has been so much fun, hardwork, lots of concentration. The script has more depth and is more straightforward.

Its a challenging story based on sexuality, past tragedies, present healing and the complex relationships between parents and children.

Finished 'Kisses'

The rock and roll -road drama 'A Thousand Kisses Before Death' was completed this month. I'm very happy with it. It is one of my favorite scripts thus far. The main character Suzume is as complex as I wanted her to be and the story turned out to be a lot more than I expected as a writer. Its always good to allow the story to take the turns it wants to-based on the situations the characters find themselves in. These situations help define the characters because it'll force them to make critical decisions.

Writing this script was so much fun! I thought it was going to be about 88 pages but it turned out to be 102 pages, which is cool, because I was so caught up in the characters lives. I enjoyed hanging out with them, lol.

When the movie is made I'm looking to make it one of the best road movies ever made.

'Black' Feature

April 7th 2013 marked the last day of production for the feature length movie I co-directed and wrote. The movie is called 'The Black Van'. It is a crime drama about bullying. Production began in Febuary 2013 but was put on hold due to bad weather. Production picked back up this month and was completed as mentioned on april 7th.

The cast includes Treach ('Jason's Lyric'), J.D. Williams ('The Wire', 'Blue Bloods', 'The Good Wife'), Sticky Fingers (popular rap group 'Onyx'), Del Harrison, Jay Parris ('Belly'),  plus a talented cast of unknown actors.

My co-director was popular music video director DC Coles.

The script was written in about a month and a half and the production last for 12 days.