Memo to Peter Bart: Don’t Be A Dick

I was perusing the trades (that’s slang for entertainment industry trade papers) recently in an effort to live vicariously through the people who actually do what I just imagine doing for a living, and I came across an article by Peter Bart (former Editor-in-Chief at Variety) regarding The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and his foray into the world of film directing (the dickishly titled “Memo to Jon Stewart: Stick with Your Day Job Behind the Desk”).

Artist’s rendering of Peter Bart, who believes that creative people should be neither seen nor heard.

You can read the article if you like, but the general idea is that Peter Bart spends 600 words essentially just shitting on Stewart’s desire to sit in the director’s chair. How does Peter Bart justify his Debbie Dickhead attitude toward Jon Stewart’s project? Well, Bart points out, Bob Dyaln was a celebrity who directed a movie…and it was bad! Not convinced? Well, Bart says, Madonna was a celebrity who directed a movie…and it was also bad!

So just to recap: because Bob Dylan made a bad movie in 1978, no one should try to direct a movie ever again. Got it. And obviously this has everything to do with the fact that Dylan and Madonna were already established stars that tried to transition into directing, and nothing to do with the fact that they were just bad directors (the Dylan film’s final cut clocked in at OVER four hours long, but yeah, I’m sure it was only a flop because he was a celebrity trying to direct). Double got it.

Bart goes on to reference successful directors (Clooney, Sean Penn, Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Elia Kazan, and Francis Coppola) who didn’t release their best work until later on in their directorial careers, and whose first projects either weren’t well-received or just weren’t that good. Basically Bart’s message is if you haven’t already done something, you shouldn’t do it.

Um. What.

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30 in 30, Day 30: Wayfarer

Today is the last day of my 30 in 30 self-assigned project, and I thought it would be appropriate to cap it off with the short film me and my buddies James S. and Greg K. shot as our entry for the 48 Hour Film Festival — a national short film festival that assigns its participants a random genre, prop and line of dialogue out of a hat, then requires them to conceptualize, write, shoot, produce, and edit a 5-7 minute short film in 48 hours. It’s a really cool concept, and I’m pleased with what we produced, given the constraints of the festival. Of all the things I have done on zero sleep, this is probably one of the ones I’m most proud of, and least worried about getting arrested for. I hope seeing this film completely changes your life.

I’ve included the embedded version at the bottom of the post, but since we shot this in HD, it will probably look better if you watch it on youtube’s actual site.

Click me to see the best movie of ever right on your computron machine.

Title: Wayfarer
Genre: Adventure Serial
Prop: Deck of cards
Line of dialogue: “You do what you want to do.”

 

At some point over the weekend I’ll probably post some sort of recap on my thoughts on this forced creativity of the 30 in 30 project I’ve been doing, but as a general wrap I’d just like to say that I appreciate the kind words and encouragement from the people who’ve liked what I’ve been doing, and the tolerance from people who’ve hated it. Even though it probably won’t be daily, I’m excited that I’m back in the swing of forcing myself to create even when it’s not convenient, and I’ll continue to post things for you internet people to digest when there’s nothing better around. All the best, and thanks for sticking with me.

Cheers,
Dustin

Best Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I am aware that this topic is well past its relevance point, and a sea of people have covered it more thoroughly and accurately than I have, but I simply had to write a thousand words on this particular topic just so I can sleep at nights. Believe me when I say that I really, really tried to leave this alone. It’s one of those things that bugged me to my core, but I knew that no one else cared about or wanted to hear me rant about on any deeper level than fleeting small talk. So I resisted. And resisted. But nope, just like Scottish whiskey and Irish women, I’ve caved in and decided to rant to the one medium that doesn’t take no for an answer (besides Ben Roethlisberger): the internet. Early mornings be damned, let’s get our blog on.

I guess we just chalk this one up as a failure of willpower.