Using WNET for my own nefarious schemes PT. 1

Making stripboards/breaking down scripts.



More to come.

For My Country Day 1

Some Screen Grabs

More later

The Confidence Man Pt. 3

After being turned away for the first time (and third attempted viewing) of The Confidence Man three weeks ago on Thursday the 10th, I made my way back over to Pier 40 and The Lilac, this time an hour early and with a friend; I still got turned away... well, sorta.

I had learned from Nick, whom I learned I could insult rather freely on this blog because he refuses to read it... something about getting in trouble by association, a reference to my previous blog blunder with the kind institution of NYU, that the final run of The Confidence Man was this week and its final show would be Saturday night. Saturday night was out because I had grandparents to visit so I made an appointment with my suitemate Junior year and roommate Senior year at NYU, Yeison (pronounced Jason) Rodriguez (he's a neuroscience/computer science major so you can imagine a lot of lan-ing between the two of us while we lived together) to go this past Thursday.

We arrived an hour before the show and put our names on the waiting list. The man at the table said "how many times is this now?" The answer was 3, pending my admission to this particular show. There were a lot of people and we had a sneaking suspicion that because we weren't there for the first time, our place was pushed to the back of the list. However, luckily, Nick and my colorsync teacher Tzipi Trope was there for the show and managed to get in so I stuck around to make sure she followed the correct docent that would take her to the scenes that involved Nick. My hanging around the pier after being rejected for the second time resulted in a quick check of the ship's capacity and then an allowed entrance for myself and my guest.

I got onto the boat but this time I didn't follow any docent, instead, seeing as to how it was going to be my last time aboard the ship to watch this play, I decided to just wander about and see whatever there was to see with Yeison, so after buying a beer and leaving a decent tip to support The Woodshed Collective we casually wandered about the boat for an hour and 40 minutes just enjoying the general bad-ass-ed-ness of the play, witnessing a great amount of things I had not seen before.

My only regret is that I did not give myself the opportunity to go to the play more often because there was still so much that I had missed and wished that I had seen.

A weekend of buses, hicks and other stuff

I left Ashna's party at 11:30PM. Nick had offered to let me stay at his place but I didn't want to interrupt the privacy that he apparently didn't need but should have with this new female person that was clinging to his lips with hers. Needless to say, Ashna and myself were quite proud of him/ joyous that something finally happened for him, and that the something wasn't of the crazy variety. Eva, or as this something went by, is probably best described in this conversation with a Mr. Ant. Jones:

Me
She's very...
(at a loss for words)
Feitelian

Ant. Jones
Yea, but, like, even more so

This, of course, means that they'll, knock on wood, get along together great.

However, I digress, because Nick's new girlfriend is not the subject of the story. So going back to what I was saying, I decided to leave the bar at 11:30PM with only one drink in me so I could get out of Williamsburg "Hipstersville" Brooklyn and over to Port Authority in time to catch the last bus home to Bloomfield.

I was looking forward to being home after a trip to decently borderline very rural Connecticut to visit/assist good friend Matthew Troy, who had organized an event for his town's fire department called The Muster. I was on hand to operate his EX-3, which is a very nice camera, but SxS cards are quite expensive and the SD to SxS adapters are quite finicky, so use with caution. (BTW, I'm my own damn DIT!!!)

This weekend in CT involved several trips to the Hebron Harvest Fair where we bore witness to many glorious displays of redneckery including, but not limited to:

Oxen Pulls
Tractor Pulls
Modified Tractor Pulls
Demolition Derby
Dock Dogs

Yes, what better way to show your neighbor you're better than them by getting your dog to jump further than their dog... also getting your Ox/horse/tractor to pull more weight further than their ox/horse/tractor.

Aside from all of the wonderful sights seen at the fair, I learned that country folk are really bitter with city folk, as best outlined in this conversation below:

Me
Hey Matt, do you have a wet-nap
or anything like that?

Matt
Why, what happened?

Me
Nothing, my hand's just muddy.

Lady
It's just mud! you'll live, city
boy!

Me
I know that, I'd just rather not touch
Matt's $10,000 camera with my
grimy-ass hands

Lady
There's plenty of water around, just stick
your hand out in the rain!

Yes, the conversation did go like that, and yes, I know she was just teasing, but a noteworthy conversation none the less.

So after a fun time filled with freshly made donuts, fried dough and locally produced milk. (Not to forget the junk cars crashing into each other) my only regret laid in my decision to leave my cowboy hat at home.

A two or three-hour bus ride later landed me back in Manhattan's Port Authority, and from there to Ashna's party. This was a legitimate bus, as opposed to my bus ride there which was a coach van to some random street in Hartford. Additionally, the van was rather late in picking me up and even later in dropping me off and made entirely complete with our grumpy Chinese driver.

I left Ashna's party, as mentioned before, at 11:30PM to catch the last bus to Bloomfield at 12:45AM, which may seem a little extreme, but trust me, it's not. I got back to Port Authority at 12:30AM, just in time to discover that all the ticket windows had just closed (no shitting, they close at 12:30AM). However, a second discovery was made: despite the fact that the sign for the bus says to purchase tickets at a ticket window beforehand, you can actually purchase tickets on the bus.

The trip home was fast. I was at my desired stop in almost 20 minutes, but not before the guy in front of me blew chunks all over the seat next to him.

Ramblings 2

I saw Confidence Man again, this time I actually got to see Nick's scenes, which were rather good and quite enjoyable. I want to go see it again but it might be overkill if I go again in such a short time so maybe in a week I'll try to go again and see another show.


On another note, today was Joyeux Noel's last day at PBS. She was the associate producer of Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, which will be premiering in October, so congrats to her for finally getting off the project!

This, of course, meant that I went into PBS today, a day that I usually don't go in, but it was a good decision to do so.

Part of me worries that if I continue too far along this path that I'll get stuck in documentary film making, which, although it is something I want to do, it's not what I solely want to do. However, even saying that I immediately remember something a professor of mine, Sharon Bedal (head of programming for the Tribeca Film Festival I believe) told the class and it goes somewhere the lines of this: "No one really keeps you from doing what you want to do, only you keep yourself from doing what you want to do,". So that's that and I shouldn't worry about it and just stop procrastination on developing my 150 ideas and just develop them. (Essentially I should just stop bitching and do the damn work)


Lastly, on my way home, while waiting for my train to begin boarding in Hoboken, I wandered around the train station and noticed, from across the water, the two pillars of light that stand now where the twin towers used to stand. I then came to the realization that 9/11 was 9 years ago and thought of my high school kids, who spoke about Hurricane Katrina with limited knowledge (which confused us until we realized it was 5 years ago and they were 12/13 at the time of the hurricane). I realized that these kids were 7/8 years old the day the towers fell, and that kind of scares me. 9/ll babies will be turning 9 in 6 days (happy birthday?) and 9 years after the fall of the towers, ground zero is STILL just a giant whole in the ground. Am I the only one who thinks there's something wrong with that?

Speaking of 9/11, I need to go finish titles and etc on my Doc. I guess I'll be working on that Tuesday evening.

The Confidence Man

I made my way over to Pier 40 onto The Lilac to see a production of "The Confidence Man," a play based off of Herman Melville's book of which (the play, not the book) my good friend Nick Feitel played a large part in. This play, however, is not of the typical variety. The closest thing I can seem to think about to compare this to would be a haunted house but I would greatly insult this production in doing so so I will refrain from doing that. If anything, this production was a choose your own adventure of sorts led by six interactive tour guides that we can feel free to abandon at any point in time; I chose to stick with my tour guide.

Despite the wondrous show I had witnessed, in choosing to stick with my tour guide I missed any and all scenes that my good friend Nick had performed in, which was particularly troubling especially since he was who I had come to see. However, from the fact that there were six different tour guides I surmised that, especially I had really enjoyed what I had seen I could potentially come and see it five more times and be treated to five completely different shows, which, is something that I did hope to do. However, upon my return home I looked at the website to reserve my spot for a future showing only to discover, much to my chagrin, that the rest of the performances were all "sold out". I put sold out in quotes because it is a free show, which may be a large factor in why the play is booked full for the rest of the month. However, the website encourages you to show up and put your name on the waiting list anyway so I think I'll go do that tomorrow, and this time I'll make sure I see my friend Nick.


In other news I've been continuing my internship with PBS' American Masters and working with a great director/producer by the name of Gail Levin. She, last year, made a series of short interviews and etc. featured on The New Yorker's website that followed the presidential election, and even though we know who won, it's still very much worth checking out. The series is called the Naked Campaign and it's very good and informative. Plus you get to see cool caricatures of all your favorite politicians (even Hilary and Obama as Homer and Marge Simpson respectively).


On a completely different note, apparently I have an IMDB page now thanks to Nick

Ramblings

So I just watched Street Fighter the Legend of Chun Li, you know, for laughs, and wow is it hilariously bad, which is good because I watched it with the intention of viewing something hilariously bad because I didn't feel like thinking and just wanted to have a little fun. Besides, its not like I paid to see it.


On another, completely different note, on Tuesday I was at my internship and it started raining, seemingly out of nowhere. My response to this is, and well, the past month or so of almost constant rain was: "What's up with this weather?" The response I get to my question is "What are you? Jerry Seinfeld?"

Now, this isn't the first time this parallel has been drawn, the former having been made by none other than Nicholas Feitel some months back. I believe his comment being somewhere along the lines of "Matt, just because you live in New York doesn't mean you have to be like Seinfeld. You're Jew-ing it up almost worst than me,". Of course he gets away with this comment for the mere fact that he is actually Jewish.

Naturally, of course, as I sit here and begin to plan my long rant about how unjust it is that the term "What's with" or "what's up with" is relegated to a 55 year-old Hungarian-Jewish- Brooklynite comedian and how I should be able to complain about things without being compared to said sitcom character/comedian whom I never really watched or cared about, I realize that this course of action can only backfire because it, in and of itself, is feeding the parallel, so I guess I'm just stuck.


Additionally, today I actually managed to go to Nick's writing group. It was fun and productive in that it has succeeded in encouraging me to work on my script more; I know I definitely want to finish my script because I want to, 1, get it made and 2, go and start writing and developing other ideas that have been floating around this head of mine.

However, at this meeting I learned that two people whom were in charge of looking for additional crew members for this shoot I wanted to be involved with were desperately seeking crew members. Upon hearing this Nick, who was already involved with the shoot, approached these two people and suggested me. Their response was somewhere along the lines of "oh yea, Matt Chao... we'll call him if we run out of PA's." (This was a professional shoot and they were looking for PA's)

I don't know how to react to that information. Provided, it is Nick telling the story so facts are bound to be exaggerated, but, I mean, I expect this kind of reaction/treatment from one of the two people there, but not really from both. I also wonder why their reactions are like that. Have I wronged them somehow? I only really worked on set with one of them and I'd like to believe that we had a fun time together the two times we worked together. Am I doing something wrong that there would be a cause for hesitance when it comes to having me on set? Mike Sweeny told me he got more or less the same response from one of them when he approached them, the "I'll call you," which, of course, meant that he never got a call, and these are supposed to be people we are at least friendly with. Is there a reason for the trepidation?

I think that my reaction to this should be and remain the reaction I expressed at the cafe where we hold our weekly writing sessions: "Oh well, fuck 'em,".


Additionally, I finally got to see and hang out with my good high school friend Yong Choi, whom I haven't seen in two years and has recently graduated from UVA for Architecture. However, this story, if deemed worth telling, may be better suited for the Xanga.

Film Shooting and Couch Surfing

So this past week was spent diligently shooting, interning, home working, class attending and, when time allowed for it, crashing on couches that did not belong to me.

Three weeks ago I spent 11 days with 17 to 20 other people cramped in a small house in rural Connecticut shooting a film for my good friend Matthew Troy. I distinctly remember the creation of the idea for this film; it started in Sophomore year and finally came to fruition this summer. For more information, although the site is outdated, please click here , I was sound mixing for that shoot. Anyway, It was a great shoot with many great stories but I'm going to go ahead and steer us away from that story because this post isn't about that shoot. This post is about the shoot that I was contacted to be on while I was on that shoot.

Andrew Roehm is a friend of mine whom I've known since high school. No, I did not go to the same high school or live in the same town, quite the contrary, Andy is a native Californian who spent his time playing Baseball as well as many other sports. I, on the other hand, have spent my life up until now... or college... living in New Jersey. Also, I've only been to California once, and no, I did not meet Andy there.

Andy and I were part of a decently large group of kids in my year that attended NYU's Tisch's Summer High School program and actually got into NYU afterwards. At any rate, while we were in the summer high school program, Andy was in my group two of the three times we formed/reformed groups and we worked on each other's projects in that program. Fast forward 3-ish years and we're Juniors in NYU. Once again we're in the same class and same group making films for our Color Sync class. For Andy's film I took on the role of Cinematographer, which I'm told looks pretty good, despite the fact that I still haven't seen the final film, but that's fine.

This all comes up because while I was in Connecticut I was called to work on Andy's senior film, this time wearing the hat of an AD. I was in, without a question. Andy had stepped in and helped me out on my film this past spring; the least I could do was help him out with his.

At any rate, what I found myself doing was working on this film, which, in all fairness, was not bad at all (with the exception of everyone being too distracted by the Hispanic tranny porn used in one of the scenes of the film, which wasn't even that bad either.) What got bad was doing this film while doing my internship while taking a class in a 3-D animation program I am barely getting a grasp of the basics for all while I no longer have a place of residency in Manhattan.

I graduated about a month ago, meaning I had to pack all my things and hold tight to my possessions as NYU housing gave me the boot. This left me rather homeless for the duration of the shoot, the late night shoots making it quite impossible for me to return to Jersey because my particular NJ Transit line stops running after 12:30AM, so I was reduced to couch surfing, which, all in all, isn't really too bad.

I spent the first night on Andy's couch after drying off from the torrential downpour we got nailed with half way through packing up all our equipment. Once I was all changed I lay down for what was going to be a surprisingly chilly night without a blanket.

The next night I spent at Nick's place. For those of you who don't know him, Nick is my curly red-headed Jewish friend whom I've known since Freshmen year and have collaborated with since. Many people are put off by his brutally honest personality, but his heart is in the right place a good 95% of the time.

At any rate, I spent the second night at Nick's, which is a small (very small) street-level studio apartment in SoHo. I spent a comfortable night on his futon with his sleeping bag as a blanket. As a side note, I'm not sure how many people know this about me, but I find it a little more difficult/ less comfortable sleeping without a blanket or something like a blanket, be it a jacket or what have you, even when it's 80 degrees out.

The third night I was going to return to Nick's apartment, but I got there too late and he was already asleep so I went to Tisch and crashed on my favorite couch in the place, the green sofa in the back of the 8th floor's Animation Department. Again, I was without a blanket or blanket substitute, but I can't complain, my journey from Sullivan and Prince brought me past several homeless people sleeping on steps and I couldn't help but think of how fortunate I was to have even a place like Tisch to spend the night.

The rest of the shoot I spent comfortably at Nick's, but the night I spent at Tisch as well as another night I almost spent at Tisch made me realize how lucky I am to be able to have a place to go in case of emergencies and how it's going to be sad once I have to let it go. I'll worry about that when the time comes, right now I'm glad to be home, where there's an actual bed for me to sleep on.