New Member Intro

Hello All,

Looking forward to meeting some of you. Here's an excessively specific describer of why I've joined. Bio at the bottom, thanks!

Through the use of a Youtube channel, research, screenwriting, shooting shorts, networking with you and exploiting relationships from my previous life in the business, my goal is to develop a neo-western limited series. The project will be a thriller - taught, surreal and fast, but analog in feel and modestly budgeted. This will not be a CG fantasy ----> we do this old-skool. If you think "The Joker" meets "Bad Day at Black Rock" would be a tasty cocktail, then you get me.

I am looking for creative collaboration in writing, cinematography, design, history, producing and distribution. The truth is, I have a vision and a plan, and I'm doing this to have fun. So if you get this project and it fits you - please connect and lets see what develops!

My Bio:

I went to CalArts for acting and then film school. I then worked in the business for about 10 years in the 90's (Knot's Landing, Permut Presentations a host of commercial and music video production companies and my own production company, Defiant Films.) I also spent 2 years as a sub-agent in the feature literary department at APA. During my time in the business I made all kinds of stuff and produced two independent features (The Godson starring Rodney Dangerfield and Ivory Tower starring Kari Wuhrer.) In 1998 I left the business and moved to Santa Barbara to raise a family. Now the family is grown and the movie business has changed so radically that I realize It has never been easier to get work distributed (if it's good of course.) So I 'm back to it, this time on my own terms, a bit wiser, more creatively mature and a bit better funded. I am a storyteller at heart and have a plan. Happy to be here.
 
I need to watch black rock.
I find a bunch of westerns unappealing.

but a great movie is a great movie
 
sfoster, I agree that classical westerns, and to an extent the revisionists as well are best left for briefly visiting some of the iconic moments of the old days, but the pace and sensibilities sometimes just don't hold up for us 2020ers. But many modern westerns, and especially the neo-westerns, are to me about the only place to see the freshest forms of conflict. Only because the "west" is so quickly fading, and causing a cultural rub as it goes.

But I ramble! Bad Day at Black Rock is cool just because it's so tight and simple. I love the clarity of it.
 
Last edited:
Film genres go in and out, and then in and out of fashion over and over again.

But I ramble! Bad Day at Black Rock is cool just because it's so tight and simple. I love the clarity of it

An excellent film. It's not a "bang-bang-shoot-'em-up" but about people and emotions and perceptions and consequences.

Believe it or not, with the exceptions infamous names of Billy the Kid, etc., the West was actually a fairly peaceful place. Excluding bar room shootings - alcohol and firearms makes a lousy mix, right? - the murder and violence rates were very low. The farmers and ranchers were primarily veterans of the Civil War; a man on either side who had survived Shiloh, Gettysburg or Antietam or any one of dozens of other battles is not likely to be intimidated by some Bozo with a gun.

Life was tending to your crops and being a member of your community, and the center of that community was often the church. The big local debates were "do we build a schoolhouse and hire a school-marm?" Huge excitement if the railroad came within 100 miles. Wow! The telegraph came with the railroad! News hours old instead of days or weeks.

Properly written and executed "everyday life" in a western town could make for interesting storytelling.
 
But I ramble! Bad Day at Black Rock is cool just because it's so tight and simple. I love the clarity of it.

Watched it yesterday. I liked the concept but the execution didnt do it for me. im just really not a western person lol.
 
Back
Top