[Aurini]

I usually just lurk around here, but I decided to start a thread because I think the film I'm producing will be right up your alley: Lust in the Time of Heartache.

I also have an ulterior motive: asking you guys if you'd be willing to spend a minute of your time voting on it, to ensure that it shows up on television where people will see it (it'll also be available online).

The subject matter is pretty much in line with what I write about on a regular basis - the shallowness and banal cruelty which dominates in our culture (see my post "Do Not Adjust Your Set"), and the struggle to maintain masculine dignity in an ugly world that despises it. The style is going to be Film Noire mixed with Martial Arts - two genres which complement each other quite well.

Quote:

Film Noire is the quintessential modern story: a story of a culture that's lost its purpose, where corruption exists at both the highest and the lowest levels in society. The Film Noire protagonist struggles against insurmountable odds, not to overcome them (there's always another enemy to fight), but as an expression of their own inner path to virtue.

Martial Arts films embrace the concept of physical struggle as an expression of inner conflict. The powers of the Samurai or the Jedi are a result of self-knowledge, and having an ideal worth protecting.

Heartache will pretty much be Red Pill 101, but it's how it will be put together that's important: I want to create something that'll reach out and instill some mortal terror into everyone whose living in the modern delusion, while also being entertaining and - ultimately - life-affirming (I'm not a fan of despair porn).

Now, all of that said - I'm hoping to source the hive mind of the forum for critiques and ideas as to what should be put into the film to make it as effective as possible. We've all seen our University buddies destroy themselves by following the standard script - winding up as self-hating, divorced castrados. I'm hoping to reach these guys on a gut level, to affirm that they're not the ones who are crazy - that it's the world that's crazy.

Here is the 2 minute promo video - and yes, I'd really appreciate it if you would spend a minute to register at Story Hive, and vote for it!

[player]

Sounds awesome! You've got my five votes.

Everyone else: creating an account is very easy and you can help Aurini out in under a minute. If you don't want to use your email address you can use Ten Minute Mail to create a new email address that lasts for just ten minutes. No need to create a fake email account.

Vote for Aurini's project at the top right: http://yycyeg.storyhive.com/project/show/id/177

Aurini, have you seen this? The Fate of Empires - Sir John Glubb. It suggests that the ills we face today are caused by a lack of virtue in society, which itself results from a period of too much prosperity. As Heartiste said, Prosperity is the Problem.

[Wutang]

Will you be accepting donations to fund this?

[Foolsgo1d]

Thought it said Red Bull at first.

There is enough material for men to claim that marriage is bad and you will have a high chance of divorce but most of these guys just never get the message.

If you can be different from the crowd of videos already out there then you will get good feedback.

[Aurini]

(04-28-2014 11:17 AM)Wutang Wrote:  

Will you be accepting donations to fund this?

Generally speaking, I find that donations are a dangerous path to go down.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against hustling to make a buck - if at the end of the day I'm not making cash then there's something wrong with what I'm doing... but just as Aristotle would say that "The best Rheotrician doesn't try to win arguments," I would argue that the best way to make money is not to try to make money.

I'm in the business of making good films, writing good books, and making engaging youtube videos (writing my blog doesn't make me money beyond a few bucks in affiliates, but it helps enable the others) - all of which are worth doing on their own right, in the same way that making a good rhetorical argument is worth doing unto itself.

When you start relying upon donations, however, you shift your business: you're not making a movie that's worth seeing (and paying to see), you're making a movie that people are likely to donate to. Charities in general are something I'm pretty critical of (they're in the business of selling warm fuzzies, not feeding the world - farmers are in the business of feeding the world), and I've specifically seen this happen with "film studios" where 90% of their effort is spent on getting donations, rather than reaching an audience with a message that's worth saying (and who gets paid first in these cases? Why, the director and producer, while the actors work for free. The people who should be the most speculative [since they reap the rewards of success] are the least, and since making movies isn't their number one priority, they're prone to avoiding all the hard-work that's needed to make their movie great).

Now, all of that said, I'm not opposed to things like KickStarter - because supporters get something out of the whole deal. You're selling future-shares of the movie (or videogame, or whatever) that you're making, rather than simply soliciting charity - in fact, I may be doing such a KickStarter later this year.

One of the projects we're planning on filming is a new version of Taming of the Shrew - if you're not familiar with it, it's one of Shakespeare's comedies, where the moral of the story is that bitchy women just need to be gamed into submission - and that a submissive woman is a happy woman.

It's impossible to do a feminist version of this play, and the last mainstream version was filmed in 1967.

Part of the reason I'm want to do Shakespeare is because of the fact that - since it was designed to be performed on a single stage - it offers up plenty of opportunity to get creative with the movie aspects. A typical script will mandate that it be filmed in a certain location, but with a play you have a ton of leeway. You could film Taming in a trailer park, or in a condo complex. I'm a strong believer in "Art through Adversity", in challenging yourself to make something great with limited resources, which is precisely what I plan to do there; pay for the talent, pay for the locations as needed, but ultimately do what we can to use the resources that we already have available to us.

[Incidentally, that's why I'll take the RX-7 over the Lamborghini any day - at $200,000, there's no beauty in the latter.]

Now that said, I certainly don't mind it when people toss me a few bucks because they like the work I'm doing, but it isn't something that I want to take up real estate in my head. Voting for this and getting your friends to vote on it is all I'm asking for because it's all I need to do this right.

Also, I should have a pilot episode for a series my partner and I are working on, uploaded to Blip.tv pretty soon, so that you can see what we're doing - a series where he interviews entrepreneurs. Aside from the intro-sequence it's not exactly an "artistic" endeavour, but I think it'd be the sort of thing that would interest the men in this corner of the web.

After all, when's the last time you heard a Baby Boomer say "I love ambitious go-getters, because I'm trying to find my replacement,"?

ED: Just to clarify, there's a $10,000 prize for being in the top 5, much of which is earmarked towards actors, equipment, and sets, but which will also help feed the bulldog at my door.

[runsonmagic]

Hey Aurini, I'm having trouble logging in to vote. Can non-Canadians vote in this?

I click sign up, and get looped back to the same page. Click it again, and it says my email is already signed up. Never get confirmation or password. Any ideas?

[Vacancier Permanent]

This is great man! You have my vote and best wishes on making this a smash hit!!!

Cheers bro!!!

[Faust]

I just voted for you 'cause I like your podcasts and your general aesthetic. Best of luck.

I'll admit to a few concerns after watching the promo video, though: why is the boom mike hanging in the shot, and why is the sound so much worse than it is in your other youtube videos?

[Aurini]

@RoM
I actually ran into the same problem when I was signing up; first it wouldn't let me log on, then it kept shunting me into Vancouver where the project was closed. All I can say is be observant with the URL in your browser.

@Faust
We were working under some pretty major time-constraints; found out about this on Saturday, and did all the filming/editing on Sunday. Ironically, the problem with the boom-mike is that it's a higher-quality microphone than I'm used to dealing with, and I have yet to suss-out how to correctly clean-up the audio it records. I rushed through it.

I generally use Audacity (which is free), which has a multi-spectral soundgate (the saying of which, makes you sound like an extra on Star Trek: Voyager). You can do some pretty amazing stuff with it, usually when I'm recording there's a loud hiss of traffic in the background. When you screw up by using too much dB noise reduction, you get audio that's slightly tinny, like in the video, or if your attack/release time is off it can fade the beginning of your sentence (I find that 0.05 seconds is the ideal setting). Also, I think the boom was set on its default of 180*, rather than 90*, so it's picking up a bit more echo than I like.

[Wutang]

Just sent in my 5 votes. I'm curious how the martial arts aspect will be implemented.