2009/2010

Well, 2009 seems to have really sucked for a lot of people. I know it had its ups and downs for me. I lost one job in Texas, and gained another one in California. I thought Indefinable Orbits would never get its final shots (its still short one, but I can get that one eventually). I took a trip to New York City, and absolutely fell in love. I made a couple of personal video's, my favorite of which is originated from my video footage from NYC -

Me Right Now - New York City from Stewart Schuster on Vimeo.

So, what does 2010 hold? It holds the completion of Indefinable Orbits, which I have promised myself to complete in the next few months. It also holds the completion of a new feature script, PHX, which I plan to shoot in Phoenix in the fall. I am incredibly excited about this. It will be my first feature, which is a surprise even to me, seeing as how I always thought The Definers would be my first shot feature, but, alas, my lack of money to be able to afford the Super 8 I need for that project is making it look like PHX may be coming first. 2010 will also see me doing a better job at keeping this blog up. In 2008, I had 124 entries. In 2009, I only had 57 (as of this writing). It's not that I watched less movies, it's just that I got lazy about updating, and I don't want to do that anymore. I want to keep up with this blog because its as much for me as for other people.

I am also hoping that 2010 will see the completion of more scripts, and especially some shorts, and maybe even the production of some shorts. We shall see. Canon has announced a 24p firmware upgrade for the 5DMkII, and I feel like, when that comes out, I will be doing more video work.

I look forward to this year. Amethyst (one of my best friends) and I were talking a few years back and we thought that 2008 would be the year that everything changed. It didn't. It kind of fizzled. Nothing too good or too bad happened to either of us. 2009, however, saw a lot of bad stuff happen to both of us. I think 2010, though, will see some good things. Even amongst all of the economic turmoil and other craziness going on, it really does feel like 2010 has some promise...

Philip Bloom's "Skywalker Ranch"

Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Vincent Laforet's "Nocturne"

Nocturne from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Session 7 Media's " Gone Goodbye"

Gone Goodbye from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.

Eliot Rausch's "Last Minutes With Oden"

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

DVD - My Effortless Brilliance

Lynn Shelton, by way of being at the right place at the right time, sort of fell into the whole Mumblecore scene by befriending folks like Joe Swanberg and others at various film festivals around the time that that movement began. Since then, she's had a roll in Swanberg's Young American Bodies, and Nights and Weekends, and followed up her debut feature, We Go Way Back, with My Effortless Brilliance, and Humpday. She continues to grow, and explore some of the more mature aspects of relationships that her contemporaries don't seem to scratch on.

Brilliance begins with the abrupt breakdown of a friendship between the characters Eric and Dylan. Eric is a writer who's ego has become too big for his friend Dylan to handle. Flash forward two years, and Eric has seen his share of let down, seeing the follow up to his debut novel crash and burn, and being humbled by the only mild success of his third novel. On a trip to Eastern Washington to give a lecture, Eric seeks to find Dylan, and tracks him down to a cabin in the woods. But has two years been enough time for Dylan to forgive and forget?

Effortless Brilliance is hard to nail down. On one hand, it is filled with long, rambling scenes that often times don't seem to go anywhere except to further establish the characters relationship with one another (which is pretty well done within the first half hour or so). On the other hand, I think the film is an amazing dissection of the way a friendship can dissolve because of one persons complete inability to really be the kind of friend the other person needs. I feel like I've been on both sides of this situation, and I feel like Shelton and her crew really managed to suss out a lot of what goes on between two people in that situation. Basil Harris and Sean Nelson fit PERFECTLY into their roles, and I think they are a primary reason, other than Shelton's direction, that this film succeeds as well as it does. My Effortless Brilliance is not a perfect film, but it is a good film with a lot of things to say and to think about.

Red Cliff

I do not know how to review this film. It was so big and epic, I can't even wrap my mind around it. I need to see it two or three more times before I can give an honest review.