a Red-utopian comrade (screenwriter) in Los Angeles
Making
a film and having it become one of the twenty-two finalists in a contest might
not seem to be a major event – after all, the running time was less than four
minutes. And it wasn’t a film about Che nor a call to the masses to rise up and
overthrow capitalism. But then, it was my first completed film, and since I’ve
been trying to do this since… Let’s see…
I
first learned, long ago, that I was a writer when I found a paragraph of mine
in our church bulletin. Having mine chosen out of those of seventy-two
second-graders was a child’s version of receiving an Oscar. And much later when
I came to realize that movies start off by someone writing down their
daydreams, I knew that was the path I wanted to take.
Later
still, when I was struck by the realization that there was something rotten in
the state of capitalism and that films could help bring about a consciousness
of this – together with helping to guide us out of the mess – my determination
to contribute to this was born.
These
decades of activism and traveling to places that the capitalists don’t want us
to go keep evolving into stories for screenplays. Writing them is easy
(writer’s block isn’t something I’m familiar with); getting someone to buy them
and make them into movies is the part that has not been happening. I pitch a
story and I’m told (this was in 2004), “I love your story but, after 9/11, the studios
won’t do anything about police brutality; it’s considered unpatriotic.”
I’m
founding an organization called Breakthrough! to support filmmaking with a social conscience.
In the
meantime, I think about producing my own films. However, I really don’t have
any desire to produce and direct; I’d rather find a talented group of people
who share my vision who want to collaborate with me. But awhile ago, it
occurred to me that I needed to produce and direct my shorts. So I started
gathering a group together to materialize my shortest screenplay onto the
screen. Two years later, my second film, all of six minutes, is about to be
completed.
Did I
say “second”? Yes. For while that piece was waiting around in post-production
for the people volunteering their time to get to it, another film was inspired,
conceptualized, written, cast, shot, edited, and uploaded – in just under a
month.
A
group I belong to – NewFilmmakers L.A. – sent out a call for films about our
city. There was a time restriction: the films had to be under four minutes.
They had to be positive, so that means they weren’t looking for us to address
homelessness or any of our serious problems, not even if we focused on such
positive movements as ex-gang members reaching out to youth to keep them off
the paths they had walked. They basically wanted ads for the tourism industry
to use to lure people here.
So
maybe I was taking a chance by creating a film about what I love about my city
instead of highlighting the tourist attractions we have. I might have featured…
What? The bust of José Martí in a local park? The amazing Watts Towers, created
by a single Italian immigrant in an area that African Americans later moved
into en masse and where many L.A. people are afraid to go?
No,
that wasn’t what I wanted to do. The name of the contest is “What’s your L.A.?”
And what I love about my city is its ethnic diversity. That might not be what
the tourism folks want to use to bring people here, but that’s what I would
celebrate in my film.
For
me, this is it. I have a friend who praises the natural beauty of his paradise
in the mountains, and I asked him about the people’s ethnicities. “We’re mostly
white,” he answered, to which I replied, “I couldn’t live there.” I love trees
but I couldn’t go back to living in an area full only of people who look like
me.
I now
live in an L.A. neighborhood called “Koreatown,” peopled by Salvadoran refugees
and Mexican immigrants and their descendants. There are also a few of us people
who are usually called “white.” Oh, and did I mention Korean Americans? We have
an Islamic Center and a Buddhist Meditation Center within walking distance of
my ethnically diverse little apartment building.
There
are ninety-two languages spoken in the homes of children in the Los Angeles
School District.
That’s
my L.A.
But
the first challenge was to come up with an under-four-minute film about that.
I’m a screenwriter; I write screenplays for narrative films, not documentaries.
But when the idea for a story about children discovering the wealth of diversity
popped into my mind, the screenplay just about wrote itself: a story of
children wanting to travel the world; since their working-class parents can’t
afford that, they take them on the next best thing: a global tour of Los
Angeles.
I
conceived of the idea and then had to write it into four pages. Writing a
feature-length screenplay is easy, but could I shove my idea into so short a
screenplay? When I wrote it out, it was five pages: too long if the “one page =
one minute” rule actually works. But I hoped I could produce this in the
one-month window of the contest and then do a longer version afterwards.
The
next step was finding a cast and crew – with a deadline less than a month away
and no budget. My other film was filmed in one location in a half day; this one
has eleven locations in nine different neighborhoods of the city; could I get a
cast and crew to volunteer to run all over with me?
Fortunately,
I belong to another group called The Table, a group of filmmaking people who
get together to share what we do and what we need. I announced what I needed
and soon had a crew who loved my idea and wanted to be at my service for the
month.
I then
put out an email to a handful of friends who have children; three families with
four children gave me my main cast: Ayanna (a few weeks short of 7), whose mama
is Salvadoran American and whose papa is African American; Nayelli and Carlos
(8 and 12) of Mexican Heritage; and our self-described “Persiapino” (Persian
and Filipino) Kamran (10).
That
the film was actually made in the month was a stunning act of faith and
determination from our dedicated cast and crew. Gary, our cinematographer and
editor, was our only professional; when I saw his previous work online I was in
awe. As it turned out, he was not only extraordinarily skilled but was also
determined that I (who had next to no experience) should be telling him what to
do. Besides Gary, we had A-yia, a camera operator who took direction from him,
as well as Cindy and Paula who did sound recording (having been trained by
Gary), and Mack who later did some vital assistant editing. The parents were
great too. Paula also started working as my assistant director in the middle of
production, once I found out what an AD is and realized how much I needed
someone to take care of problems I hadn’t foreseen coming up. (She’s also my
best friend and the woman who long ago introduced me to Cuba.) Finally, my
Bolivian friend Mario gave me permission to use a perfect piece of his Andean
flute music from his band’s album.
All
these volunteers working for the love of the project!
Besides
being inexperienced, I tend to be scattered: fiction writers are daydreamers,
not necessarily people of the most focused minds. I’d tell the actors where to
stand, Gary would tell me what to say to the camera and sound people, I’d say
it and wait. Why are they just standing there? Then someone would say,
“Carolfrances, call ‘Action.’ ” Oh, that’s right: I’m directing this thing.
Gary
taught me – and reminded me until I learned – to look over his or A-yia’s
shoulders to see if what’s on their little screens is what I want. He was
determined to not only give the best of his vision and skills but to bring out
the director in me. I had some overcoming to do: when I’m around people who
know so much more than I do, I tend to back off and let them lead. But Gary
never let the opportunity pass by to remind me that I was the
writer-director-producer, to push me into its leadership.
Thanks.
We
finished our filming as the deadline drew dangerously close. The day we had to
upload it was the day of our final editing. Looking over Gary’s shoulder at his
computer, making decisions with him, I learned much of the science of editing
and a whole lot more of the art of it. I felt like a “real” director – which I was,
of course, but realizing it was an amazing experience.
We had
to cut our film down to length. We removed one great scene and trimmed a lot.
But it was done: I had directed and produced my first film, all of 3 minutes
and 51 seconds.
When I
received the notice that Within the City Limitless was one of the twenty-two entries chosen to be screened, I was
exhilarated. We didn’t win any prizes that night, but when I asked how many
films had been entered into the contest, we were told “Oh, hundreds!” That’s all
we needed to hear. And the children got to see themselves up there on the
screen and hear people laugh and applaud for them. And afterwards, many people
came up to them and expressed their enjoyment of their work, photographing
them, giving them the star treatment. It was a wonderful night.
Besides
planning our extended version, I already am playing with ideas for my next
year’s entry.
More
about our organization at: http://BreakthroughIndies.org.
To see Within the City Limitless, click the
link to it at: http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/content/los-angeles-video-project
Nella diffusione e/o ripubblicazione di questo articolo si prega di citare la fonte: www.utopiarossa.blogspot.com
