Writing
A Spring Heart
Take full account of what excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
Marcus Aurelius Antonius
What keeps an artist going is the joy at being able to express with great faculty their thoughts. To create tangible expressions of their inner world is a great [...]
Art, Love & Commerce
DVG Crimson Kiss, M. Ulto 2007 (see full sized version here)
There are times in one’s life when worth is realized. That time comes in a strange side-winding way for artists, whose path is never clear, and most definitely less certain than the path taken by the many. The myths and warnings are [...]
What’s Your Spielberg Moment?
Since doing this On The Lot thing, I’ve been pondering the films that had the most effect on me. Steven Spielberg is a prolific filmmaker, but one of his first, JAWS, really sucker punched my imagination awake.
I love Spielberg’s films – from Saving Private Ryan to Close Encounters of The Third Kind – so many [...]
The Season of Miracles
“And I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant heavens, and lay the foundations of earth, and say to Zion, You are my people” (Yeshayah 51:16)
I am grateful for a challenging, productive, complicated year. I have been pushed and [...]
To The Uniting Parties That Be…
Hear my plea…
I’m Ramones’ing
I know you exist in my very fibers
That particles of you are particles of me
And I hate that I need and want your love
Any love
What’s love?
I’m paranoid, I’m foolish, I’m frozen
Love me sounds like a plea
Vulnerable, trustng, no longer stiff
Yet weak, loathing the very object
When simply inside I object
The desire unmet rends [...]
Let Your Light Shine
Philly Fountain – M. Ulto 2006
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You [...]
Making Movies That Matter
I’ve been home with a cold, watching movie after movie. This is my favorite part of being sick – alleviating the boredom of couch napping and coughing.
This weekend, I watched a range of movies, from “Sideways” to “Millions”. I noticed several key issues with the movies being produced inside the Hollywood system or its close, [...]
Filmmaking Methods & Practices – Licensing Images/Footage/Music
The biggest pitfall of any filmmaker I’ve ever worked with is hubris – the arrogance to believe your production is untouchable, not that important to be bothered with or invisible in regards to licensing content.
A friend of mine has a cat, Pepe. When he’s feeling particularly playful or frisky, he climbs into an open top [...]
Multo.com Video & Vodcasting Services
I’m a big fan of putting tools into the hands of people eager to tell a story. At Multo.com, I work with the philosophy that everyone should be able to produce their own film, demo reel, vodcasting site or online portfolio. EPKs (Electronic Press Kits) shouldn’t be a mystery or over-priced. Once a client is [...]
Filmmaking Methods & Practices – Checklists
Checklists are an organized filmmaker’s best friend. From pre-production to marketing, there are many different kinds of checklists used to make the production run smoothly. It is a good idea to create your own checklists, based on your own methods. I’ll share my checklist types and you can fill in the body with your own [...]
Filmmaking Methods & Practices – B-Roll
B-roll is secondary footage, used to help illustrate the story in a visual manner. B-roll consists of scenic footage, extreme close-ups of objects or faces, action pans and still images animated in post. We all, in production, love b-roll.
However, there is an issue with excessive b-roll, especially shot on location. If you have a production [...]
Filmmaking Methods & Practices – Editing 101
I love what I do – writing, directing, editing, producing, design, shooting video and photography. All of it is related to how I approach filmmaking, and the methods and practices of my craft that I’ve picked up along the way. I’ve been doing this for years now, so I’ve learned, by observation or experience, what [...]
Peace of Small Moments
Mother & Son, Sister & Child – M. Ulto
While wars rage, greed and egocentric behavior flourishes, hate grows and misery spreads, there is the peace of small moments to reflect on.
Love in a touch – the touch of an eyelash on a child’s cheek – butterfly kisses.
Peace in a touch – the soothing of cool [...]
The Woman Writer – Pillaged for Talent, Raped for Content
Sophia Stewart, Mother of The Matrix
I watched “V for Vendetta†last night, and was moved, but also wary. The art is excellent, but the people behind the art are flawed, deeply flawed. The Wachowski Brothers seem to be very derivative in their works. Some have accused them of outright plagiarism, including Grant Morrison, creator of [...]
Virtue & Truth Are Never Convenient
Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
She who faces Death by torture for each life [...]
What Would You Fight and Die For?
An Israeli soldier climbs on an armored vehicle in a field at a gathering point near Kibbutz Mefalsim, southern Israel, just outside the Gaza Strip, Thursday June 29, 2006. Israeli troops rounded up dozens of ministers and lawmakers from the Palestinians’ ruling Hamas party on Thursday, while pressing a military campaign in Gaza meant to [...]
What’s Not For Sale?
A Soilder’s Tears – Iraq 2006 – Photo via ISM
In the land of the brand, what do we designate priceless?
There is no question the rise of the brand has marketed each aspect of life, each nugget of marketability extracted with precision by ad execs and PR flacks. From birth© to death™, every possible product, not [...]
