What's Next?

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I hope the beginning of the year has treated you all well.

Soon I will return to Savannah to finish Pest Control, this time as the unit's DP/CamOp, and will actually be sleeping in the set, which sounds Eraserhead-enough to me.

When I return I will pitch my pilot and be halfway done with both collaborative script efforts I have spent the last four months on.

If you get to this on time, I am entering the Artists Wanted contest in NY. Feel free to check out my entry and vote: http://www.artistswanted.org/wilsonbstiner

Thanks for reading!

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of days ago I passed over the Grand Canyon for the third time. I was in Savannah, GA working on my brother's last film at Savannah College of Art and Design, "Pest Control." Spending a good deal of time there forced some contemplation about a liberal arts vs. fine arts education. There are clearly some major advantages to an arts school, such as the specialized departments within a discipline, which can become integral to film production, the technical training, the amazing resources, etc. It had been a plan of my brother and I to experience different sides of the film education, and I am glad for it. Hopefully, in the near future we will be able to balance our knowledge on set.

I can certainly say, without taking German New Wave (only available at CC), I wouldn't have been so eager to see Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans.

Here are the two spots for the film, that should be hitting festivals this coming summer:
http://www.vimeo.com/7657399
the more "viral video" approach: http://www.vimeo.com/7687594

There was a lot of reflection going on this winter, since it was the first time I had been back east in a year... I will be putting some of those thoughts to work in some experimental short doc I think.

In the meantime, all of the 24 directors of The Death of Socrates (mentioned previously), including myself, are waiting to hear back from some big festivals. I will be pitching a sports talk show pilot soon and will be working on some other interesting projects (Illeana Douglas' Easy To Assemble: http://www.easytoassembleseries.com/ for one) in all different stages. Hopefully they will be available in some form or another for your viewing pleasure.

Oh, and if you want to see a good film over the holidays, don't watch Up In The Air. It was the "special" festival closer in Savannah. I don't think so.

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, you've got to love Mondays... there really isn't anything like getting an early wake up call from NY when you are on LA time.

I'm looking at the title of this blog... and I don't really think figuring out the answer to the question is going to suit me. I have always been obsessed with my career in the arts (used "liberally") in hopes that I can achieve some amount of comfort financially, coming from work I enjoy doing. So I just have to do it... Sure, I can find good in almost any job, but I'd like to not have to lie to myself that much. The real question is not, "what's next?" It's "why do the people who weigh in on the answer to that question make it so hard?" Is it bitterness? Is it fear? Do they simply refuse to recognize themselves as part of a whole? The world does revolve around you, but you are everyone, and if I or anyone else can't see that, everyone and I are doomed.

Geesh... a little heavy, but this is a blog right?

For more fun reading, check out a CC alternative: http://ajunkyard.wordpress.com/author/wilsonbstiner/

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things are hot in cracktown... or just really slow. The pace here is like a schizophrenic slug. Which direction? Which unpaid job? How do I leave my trail? Should I keep extending myself or retire into my shell and do what is important to me?

I guess I have done a lot of both.

Here is the latest thing to come out of my personal pursuits, which I mentioned in the last blog post: http://www.vimeo.com/5433490

I am also working as an assistant to Faye Dunaway, which is proving interesting and educational.

Now that I am joined by a fellow classmate out here in LA, CC comes up pretty constantly.

In a world that is so concerned with numbers and units, I can't say now is the time to try the artistic angle, but I feel the need to be true to myself. I think that is the goal.

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Relaxing a bit on a Saturday night, I watched The Office Season 4, Episode 11. After a night out at a swanky NY bar, Rainn Wilson's character leaves the basketball player with whom he has been sucking face and shouts, "Good luck against Conn College!" Alumni Lee Eisenberg is undoubtedly responsible for this. He came back for a film event when I was a freshmen, and when I lived in LA for a summer, we met up to talk about the transition from New London to New Media.

More and more I am understanding how words of wisdom from others are helpful, but certainly in the entertainment industry, do not supply an answer. It's not so cut and dry, and especially in the present climate, those in my flippers are left treading at the deep end.

Although things are not as bright as I would like (or would have been if I graduated a year or two ago), I am not quite ready to start living in the closest tent village. While looking for some stable source of income, I have been involved with some great projects, people, and developments: I recently re-cut my feature and am in the professional sound mix stage before its West Coast premiere, which has created enough buzz to warrant some attention from distributors; a production company has selected me to direct one of twenty-four segments helmed by up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world, which divide the Apology of Socrates; Great Northern's label has been sending me some video to edit for promos (http://eeniemeenie.com/gnsplash.html); an indie feature recently hired me as their Music Supervisor, so if you want some exposure for your musical talents, feel free to contact me.

Since I joined a gym out here, I try to find new ways to fill my ears for an hour or so each day. If you are crunched for time, I suggest The Economist's weekly podcasts and I just got hip to Librivox.com, where you can download whole books in the public domain. There's nothing quite like looking at LA high-rises while listening to The Communist Manifesto.

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know this is short, but it's sweet.

Since I moved to LA, I have been involved with the production sound of two spec Coke commercials. Both were finalists of the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmakers contest, and one of them, "Meanwhile..." was just awarded as the winner, which means you will probably see it if you attend theatrical releases.

Here is the link to see "The Joust" and "Meanwhile..." on a smaller screen:
http://www.ccrfa.com/ccrfa/

Enjoy!

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

CC’s letter to Richard Jenkins necessitated that I watch The Visitor immediately. It’s a very nice, intimate character study with much more interesting cultural attitudes than, say, the Oscar-famed Crash, which was awful. The hardest part about watching it was that all of the nuanced pins that get set up are knocked down too easily and quickly, such as Walter’s inability to talk about his work in progress. I almost think the film was meant to be three hours long and the producers shortened the scenes for the modern content curve. It seems appropriate that Walter ends up listening to Fela somehow. Good sir, Sahil Sachdev introduced me to him my freshmen year at CC.

In other news, I just finished serving as camera operator and sometimes director of photography for Jeff and Saba Doucette’s web-series, “Bollywood to Hollywood,” intended to fuel the investments for their feature. Strangely enough this was my third Bollywood-related project. At CC I was a camera operator for Dave Kahn’s thesis about a film student who goes to India to make a Bollywood film and I also acted in Winslow Porter and Keith Anthony-Brown’s Dark Days of the Wonderful Sach, complete with bhangra hits. The idea for the series came from Jeff’s trip to India to star in David Lynch’s daughter’s film, Hisss.

If you have Netflix and missed out on Film 101, you can watch Even Dwarfs Started Small instantly and get a taste.

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Having almost killed myself getting caught in a snowstorm on my way back to DC to record a voice-over track a couple weeks before my winter graduation, I was happy to simply be alive upon my emergence into the working world. While submitting my film, Ser O Estar, which I produced in Spain during my semester and summer abroad, to various festivals around the world, I began working for film, design, and music companies in DC as a freelancer. Meanwhile, my lady, Libby Levine ('07) worked for Management Systems International and NARAL Pro-Choice America. The rest of the time we spent together. The living was fairly easy.

Soon, as certain prospects that would take me abroad were not coming to light, I began a dialogue with my friends and colleagues out in Los Angeles. They all suggested I resist the temptation, as the industry had been front-loaded, and the strike and might-as-well-be strike were slowing things up significantly. They told me that I should arrive in mid-September. Of course things only got worse. So, I finished up my last assignments, made a short with Evan True ('06), had some great parties, including one night out with Chris Reilly ('07) and his band, Welcome To Florida, spent some quality time with the family, and nevertheless began preparing for my cross-country road trip with Libby.

For two weeks we (read I) drove in a zig-zag fashion to places we had never seen, might never get to see again, and met some of the diverse faces of city and country. Some of those faces were of Andrew Shapiro ('06) and Hale Ekinci ('06) in Chicago. Others were of ferrymen of East State Park in Ohio, the owner of the Afghan restaurant in Missouri, the Flying W's ranch-hands in Oklahoma, the mutli-media artists at High Mayhem's festival in New Mexico, trail guides at the Grand Canyon, and a black lab/pitbull puppy at "Dogtoberfest" in Prescott, Arizona. We named her Andaluz (Anda for short) after our love of Andalusia and the Buñuel/Dalí experimental film, Un Chien Andalou.

After a short stint living with two classically trained freaks in Burbank, we moved to Hollywood and are now practicing our Spanish on a daily basis with the neighbors. Of course, they think we're snobby because we have Spanish accents.

Posted by Wilson Stiner at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)