'The Solitude Trilogy'

'The Solitude Trilogy' is a exploration of women facing different degrees of loneliness, depression and insomnia in a single location. Three actress have been attached to this trilogy, they are: Marlies Bauer Bell, Nana Ponceleon and Grace Kiley. It's the second time I'm working with Marlies and Nana and the first time working with Grace. Each story is told in three separate movies ('All Things Considered', 'The Waking Hours' and 'Behind Glass Doors').

All three movies will be filmed in different locations. 'All Things Considered' is in post production. 'The Waking Hours' is scheduled to begin production in Feb. 2016 and 'Behind Glass Doors' is scheduled to begin filming in Fall/Winter 2016.

This trilogy will be dedicated to the late Belgian Filmmaker Chantal Akerman.

More to come...



Marlies B. Bell

Nana Ponceleon

Grace Kiley

'Beautiful' location Pics

                                     Me (center), with actor Kohei Akira Maeda (right)

                                      Me (center), with Kohei A. Maeda (right)            

 

                                      Me (left) with hardworking crew and Kohei A. Maeda (center)

'Beautiful' Documentary

 (Pictured above: Karlynn Pina)


During our 4 days of principal photography  for 'Beautiful Women Live By Night', we had the behind the scenes documented. Karlynn Pina is the documentarian and she has caught myself and everyone else in action. The documentary is in the works to being edit by Karlynn.

The documentary is titled '4 days of bliss' will be on Vimeo to rent come Feb. 2016.

Look out for more updates about the documentary right here!

Director's Quotes Pt. 4

"Film can be inventive. You don't have to tell a story, and you don't have to please a TV or an audience. What I hate in movies is all those people you need. And then I realize I do better when I shoot by myself."
             -Chantal Akerman


"I dream for a living."
          -Steven Speilberg

"Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes."
          -Robert Altman

"My distinguishing talent is the ability to put people under the
microscope, perhaps to go one or two layers further down than
some other directors."
             -David Lean

"The only safe thing is to take a chance."
           -Mike Nichols

'To make a film is easy. To make a good film is war. To make a very good
film is a miracle."
     -Alenjandro G. Iarritu

"I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive.
I think it takes obsession takes searching for the details for any artist to be good."
          -Barbara Streisand

Production wraps in a DAY on new short!

    (Marlies Bauer Bell (left), Me (left)

On November 14th, 2015 Production wrapped on the new short drama I wrote and directed starring the incredible actress, Marlies Bauer. Marlies also stars in my latest upcoming short 'Beautiful Women Live By Night'.

This recent short drama stars only Marlies and a cat. It's titled- 'All Things Considered' It's a day in the life of a depressed, lonesome actress in her apartment. The whole movie was filmed under six hours, with no script, one camera, one location and using natural light only. These limitations were challenging but fun; and the result is going to be amazing!

The goal is to first release the final cut of the movie online.

More to come.

'Beautiful Women' return!

Production went on  for four days last week for the short drama, 'Beautiful Women Live By Night'. It is a companion piece to the award winning experimental short, 'Beautiful Women Wake Up Early' (2011). The movie was shot on location in Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY. It's a whole new cast and an incredible crew.

The DP is Jamal Solomon ('Shelah', 'The Last Show'), Produced by Stacey Maltin ('Working On it', 'Best Vacation Ever').

The cast consist of Nana Ponceleon, Marlies Bauer, Yukiko Miyawaki, Luiza Westwood and others.

I wrote and directed 'Beautiful Women Live By Night'. It is now in Post-Production.

                      (Nana Ponceleon (left), Me (right)
                       

                      (Adam Chinoy (assistant director, left), Kelly Stauffer (center), Me (right)

                    (Me, (right), Nana Ponceleon (left)

'Night' awaits

Okay, so 'Night' has been on hold for over a month now. The casting is taking longer than I thought. The lead is still cast but the supporting roles still need to be cast. In the meantime I'm pressing forward with a couple of other projects. Stay tune.

'Night' actress

Noriko Sato, lead actress for my new upcoming short movie 'Night'.
She is known for 'Batsu!' Which is a weekly Japanese game show in New York.

Pre 'Night'

'Night' is a short movie that I wrote and will be directing. The casting has been a bit tricky. Shio Muramatsu was the first to be given the lead role of Lisa Chang but because of scheduling conflicts she was replaced with actress Noriko Sato.

Here is the synopsis for 'Night':

While on a business trip, journalist Lisa Chang faces loneliness, longing and temptation in New York City, while struggling to complete her writing assignments. 

There are still a couple roles that need to be filled in. It's produced by Ren Humphrey, a young man who was the sound man on 'Fumeu'; which was episode 2 for the web series 'Ms. Monologue'.

'Beautiful...' online!

The award winning short I directed, wrote and produced is now online! 'Beautiful Women Wake Up Early' was shot in 2011, spent 9 months in post production and was selected and screened at the New York International Film Festival- LA edition in 2012. At that film festival it won Best Experimental Short. The screening took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, Calinfornia.

I'm very proud of this short, the whole cast was a thrill to work with and the crew was excellent and creative, helpful, passionate; with everyone's collaboration the vision in my mind came to fruition.

Below is the link. Enjoy, leave a comment if you like on the page and share with others. Thanks.

https://vimeo.com/122233098

One of the best Directing Debuts in cinema!

I have seen some really impressive film directing debuts and Ridley Scott's 'The Duellists' is no exception. Cinematographer Frank Tidy ('Under Siege', 'Hoodlum') worked with Ridley on many commercials before they shot this stunning historical drama. 'The Duellist' is quite epic as far the scope of years that it covers. The story is based on Joseph Conrad's short story. Ridley says on the excellent commentary on the special edition dvd that the script was 'elegant' and 'sparse'.

I was wondering how can one make a film about two men dueling for a whole film and keep it interesting. Since the film covers many years (early 1800's to late 1800's), you get to see how these two men (played wonderfully by Keith Carradine and Harvey Keital) move up in the ranks and while one becomes more wealthy than the other, you get to see the toll this mancho, competitive combat takes on both men and the cost of it.

Ridley's commentary on the dvd is so informative, so encouraging and rewarding because here is someone who makes some of the biggest films in modern cinema and he's sharing how he carried his first feature along the way in a very professional and proficient way. Ridley operated the camera, they shot it all on location in France and London for 58 days, small crew and they came in on schedule for $900,000. Incredible!

The duel begins over a petty situation which then ends up being forgotten about as the years pass by. The story is about honor and pride.

Sure there are mishaps in the film but that's okay, because in the end it's the story that matters and what it conveys.

One of the best car racing films ever!

In 1971 Steve Mcqueen released his love project 'Le Mans'. Over forty years later I had the great priviledge to watch this incredible film on TCM this month. It's movie that cost his company Solar Productions lots of cash. There were accidents during the making of the film as well as a filmmaker John Sturges pulling out of the project after facing conflicts with Steve Mcqueen on location. Lee Katzin was brought in to finish filming. He was known as tv director (In the Heat of the Night, Miami Vice, Chips).

I would like to had seen this film on a large movie screen with surround sound. But to see it in the comfort in my house has been an incredible experience. The sound in the film is so well crafted as well as the choice of camera angles. There is no dialogue for the first 37 minutes. This film is about car racing. That's really it. It covers the 24 hour car race in france. I learned plenty about the race by watching this film. Steve Mcqueen loved racing in his private life. As a international movie star, car racing kept him grounded. He had to prove himself to those car racers and he did. He was in the top five in some highly competitive car racing events in the past.

The way the whole race is covered from 4pm to 4pm the following day is wonderful. The night footage in the pouring rain is excellent. The whole movie can be intense, especially the car crashing.

This compared to Renny Harlin's 'Driven', Tony Scott's 'Days of Thunder', Sydney Pollack's 'Bobby Deerfield', 'Le Mans', I enjoyed it more than the movies previously mentioned. I love how focus, direct and pure 'Le Mans' is.

The writer of 'Le Mans', Harry Kleiner, is the writer of 'Bullit' which also starred Steve Mcqueen.