Navigating Production
As Paul Willis raises money for a release print of his adaptation of the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, and Matt Wilkins is about to lock picture on his final cut of Buffalo Bill's Defunct, a couple of other films are just now finishing the "production" phase of the process.
I stopped by the wrap party for Shep Salusky's feature film The Observation Room, held in a downtown hotel bar, where I observed the crew celebrating with karaoke, bizarre dancing, and drunken romances. The movie itself is an actor-driven psychological thriller (with a surprise twist, of course), shot on three main locations over the course of two and a half weeks.
Cascadia, based on Charles Mudede's Police Beat column, is scheduled to wrap its production phase on December 1. It's the opposite sort of independent film. Instead of limiting the number of locations for the ease of the production, the crew is shooting all over the city, with the total number of locations hovering somewhere around 100. Instead of filming everything in one fell swoop, they've stopped and started the seven-week shoot for purposes of fundraising (and massive strategy sessions). It's an ambitious and difficult film, and having worked on it I know I am not the only person looking forward to seeing it done.
Speaking of ambitious filmmakers, Orson Welles left behind nearly as many unfinished films as he did finished ones. On Saturday, November 22, at 2:00 p.m., Consolidated Works is hosting a lecture/discussion called Navigating Genius: Working with Orson Welles. Gary Graver worked as Orson Welles' cinematographer through the '70s and has a host of great stories about the man. He will sit down with Seattle's biggest Welles aficionado, Sean Axmaker (critic for the Seattle P-I), and will spill the beans about what it's like to work with genius. Graver will also be introducing screenings of F for Fake over the weekend, also at Consolidated Works.
As part of the Baja to Vancouver exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, SAM and 911 Media Arts are teaming up to present West Coast Visions (Fri Nov 21 at SAM), a collection of films and videos by talented West Coast artists like Miranda July, Harrell Fletcher, and Scott Livingstone. The show will be introduced by two of the filmmakers, Matt McCormick and Shannon Oksanen.
Those who are looking forward to the upcoming anniversary of the WTO riots have a couple of choices. Affluenza is a look at overconsumption and materialism, hosted by NPR's Scott Simon, and will be showing at the University Heights Center (5031 University Way NE, Room 211) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 20. At 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 23, the Seattle Independent Media Center (1415 Third Ave) will be showing Breaking the Bank, which looks at the history and impact of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
