120e anniversaire du cinéma

On the 28th of December, 2015, it was the 120th birthday of  the day the Lumiérè brothers screened the first commercial film images. So, we can say that that occasion was the beginning of movie theaters, the birth of the most emblematic location for all of us who love cinema. So Tàndem has paid tribute to this place where the magic of cinema best by assembling clips of films and the audiences who love them as portrayed in film.

Uncle Gus' Monkey: la pièce de théâtre

I've actually started writing this story of my life yet again. I am re-writing Knock Knock, taking out all the music, rearranging bits and using the ending of Uncle Gus' Monkey.  But most of all, I am reworking it for actors, taking me as performer, out of the script. The goal is to create a play that Warren can pitch to Canadian theatres.

"They" say, Write what you know. That is what I do. I keep reworking my same old story.

I say: I am sick of my story. I think about my history all the time. Is it because I am fucked up or is it because I am mining it for the screenplay and this play and for Trudeau, the Felons and Me. James, the new-on-the-scene therapist thinks I have every right to be fucked up given my past.

I worry that this blog and my telling friends about all that is going on in my life, is bragging. I am worried that I am turning friends off and that I have become someone unlikeable. Is that why I am always alone now?

Fodder for James….

Anxiété

4:30 and no call with a time for a meeting next week with Brad. Have we lost momentum? We could've but I don't think so. We have four more working days before Warren leaves, but he is only leaving town for a week. We could always meet when he gets back. Brad has moved so quickly up to now, and of course I have been so indifferent up to now but now I am excited/hopeful.

I walked the seawall today. It was really lovely at times, for winter. And winter is not as bereft of colour as one might think. My photo of a majestic yellow flouring bush was blurry, but here are the rest. Winter at home ain't so bad. I love not travelling and the regularity and ease of life.

Warlord(s)

I designed a logo for my screenwriting
partnership with Warren.

I went for my first visit to a counsellor yesterday. His name is James and I liked him very much. My objective in going is to see if I  can "calm the fire within;" less obtusely, I hope to feel less angry inside.

I am writing about my life, adapting Knock Knock for an actor other than me. And writing about my life for Uncle Gus' Monkey and writing about and memorizing my lines for Trudeau, the Felons & Me. Plus, I am leading my life. All this focus on my and my past is one reason I sought out James.

The other thing is the anxiety/pressure I feel and more and more people get involved with the book, the plays and the movie. Warren, Jane, Kim, Brad, the Director, the line producer, the actors, the techies, etc., etc…. sometimes they feel like fishhooks in my skin and I want to retreat from these things 

I said, "Yes." To them all, so I am responsible for all these hooks, I know, but that doesn't mean I don't feel pressure and so I am very happy to have James "in my corner" for the next while.

Aller au marché

The fog of recent days makes for incredibly moving
 panoramas. It removes the mountains and usual landmarks.

Yesterday I signed a partnership agreement—it's my first contract related to Uncle Gus' Monkey.

Warren and I have formed a partnership called Warlord Productions ("war" coming from Warren, "lor" coming from Loranger and "d" for "determined"). We are developing two properties: The screenplay Uncle Gus' Monkey and, starting in February, a derivative stage play. We are going to re-work the play that inspired the screenplay, Knock Knock, but as a straight play (we are dropping all the songs that were in the original play).

We are ready for our meeting with the Out TV producer who told us to come prepared to reveal: "What we want?"

It is rather amazing to know that every day this week, a member of Brad's team is reading our screenplay and that at some point they are all going to be sitting down in a room to discuss the pros and cons of producing it. That meeting will lead to a call that could go one of two ways: We will either be called in for a contract meeting, or it will be, "Thanks, but no thanks."

So far, however, every reader has been very positive so Warren and I both anticipate having to tell Brad "what we want." What we want is this:

• Union scale for the screenplay
• Points or a buy out of our production rights (fee per broadcast/viewing)
• A fictionalized rendition of a my life story (we are willing to alter facts)
• And we want all names changed (no real names)
• Credit: "Written by Chris Tyrell Loranger and Warren Kimmel, based on the stage play, Knock Knock, by Chris Tyrell Loranger"

If the call is to come in (and not to piss off), it will be to sign an option agreement. Signing an option agreement is emotionally akin to selling your child to a pimp. We want a six month agreement but the industry standard is a year.  I consulted with an entertainment lawyer who is a friend and was very gratified to hear how much she respects Brad, the pimp.

It took years and years of encouragement from Dwight for me to write Knock Knock. And I chose to produce it myself in 21012 because I had no confidence in its worth. And I made it a fundraiser for a charity to get people to come for that reason, not out of interest in my life or respect for my capacity to write for the stage.

And it took another year of encouragement from Warren to turn Knock Knock (KK) into Uncle Gus' Monkey. We started in June 2014. It took three weeks to write the first draft and thenWarren and I spent about another fifty hours on the re-write that went to Brad. 

When I succumbed to Warren's pressure to turn KK into a screenplay, I did so without any expectations obviously. Neither of us had any relevant experience and we both knew we were embarking on a journey we shared with zillions of dreamers and that the probability of success was similar to winning the lottery. But here we are, way way beyond my expectations and—quelle surprise!—it feels really really great to pimp your kid.

Cinéma vérité

What if the integrity required of art gallery curators, who program for the public, was required of screenwriters who pen the biopics that are presented to vastly larger publics? 

Recently I went enthusiastically to see Mr. Turner and The Imitation Game. It was interesting to see two approaches to filming a “biography,” back-to-back. I found Mr. Turner richly rewarding and masterfully done and The Imitation Game to be pretty much loathsome.

It all comes down to this: Do you understand the man at the end of the film? With Timothy Spalding’s portrayal of Mr. Turner, I think you can come away with a real true sense of the man and his commitment to art making. But at after watching Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Alan Turing, you come away as you do from most film biographies—as accurate as a renaissance portrait of its subject.

Mr. Turner is an artist and Mr. Turing is a mathematician. Both of them are obsessive masters—perfect topics for another genius film that mixes insight with a gossipy look at private peccadillos that humanize their subjects.

Mr. Turner says: This is what he was like and it is the finest representation of a visual artist’s process that I have ever seen on film. It’s about his soul, and there is little to quibble with in terms of its truth. The Imitation Game, however is more narrative, it’s more a race against time to win the war. It is full of tension I never felt. It is about a mind, not a soul. It opts for the cliché ah-ha unexplained “moment,” providing little actual insight into the man’s genius and it takes gross liberties with truth.

I can’t imagine going to see The Theory of Everything but I may go, just to see Eddie Redmayne’s performance. Ask yourself: If a movie were to be made about Stephen Hawking, a man of unbelievable medical and mental accomplishment, what story would you tell? Would it be about his love life?

Sadly, we glorify misinformation in cinema made for massive global audiences yet hold our curators, who program for tiny audiences, to the highest possible standards.

The Lavender Postscript: "The Imitation Game" is the latest installment in the zillion-long list of films about homosexuals who, in the end, wind up dead or crazy. Brokeback Mountain, of course, having one dead and one crazy at the end.

Montage magistrale

This short animated film is beautiful but it is the edits that humble me—they seriously impress me.