Auto Shop

From now own I'm only frequenting mechanics who have already set dressed their lobby to look like 1985.

The Same Four Chords

All it takes is four chords to make the same pop song over and over again. Nothing new there. But wow does Axis of Awesome make it sound great.

Things You See In Los Angeles Untitled #2

Things You See In Los Angeles Untitled #1

INFLUENCERS

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.

The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach.

Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today's pop culture.

"Influencers" belongs to the new generation of short films, webdocs, which combine the documentary style and the online experience.

www.influencersfilm.com
www.facebook.com/influencersfilm

2010 Election Chart | GOP & DEM voting breakdowns as compared belief in Glenn Beck

2010 Election Chart | GOP & DEM voting breakdowns as compared to nation wide education levels

A Line Describing The Sun (Excerpt)

A Line Describing The Sun (Excerpt)



A Line Describing the Sun involved a day long performance in which I followed the path of the sun with a large Fresnel lens mounted on a rolling apparatus. The lens focuses the sun into a 1,600-degree point of light that melts the dry mud, transforming it into a black glassy substance. Over the course of a day, as the sun moves across the sky, a hemispherical arc is imprinted into the lakebed floor.

Norilsk Russia

I want to visit.

Coming soon....

This is coming soon. Two and a half months later and Dave’s project is about to ready to go out into the world. Can’t wait to share this show with everyone.

This Is How You Know You're Playing Too Much Bejeweled Blitz

Northern California

Jimmy Fallon + JT History of Hip Hop

Camera, Camera

A trailer for the feature documentary CAMERA, CAMERA. cameracamerafilm.com

Westerners young and old arrive in Laos, and so do their cameras. They document a fragile and deceptively brutal world, revealing themselves in the process. CAMERA, CAMERA quietly calls upon viewers to ponder the multifaceted and often ambiguous impacts of travel and photography on citizens of two worlds.

Directed by Malcolm Murray. Written by Michael Meyer. Produced by Josh Haner.

Produced by THIS. hereisthis.com

Short film by Malcom Murray, director of 'Up There'.

New OK Go music video. With trained dogs. Enough said.

UP THERE - short film about billboard painters in NYC

I wrote this documentary along with my friends Malcolm and Christine, as part of The Ritual Project sponsored by Stella Artois (more at uptherefilm.com). So proud to help these painters tell their story.

Concept: Mother NY; Production Co: Mekanism; Director/DP/Editor: Malcolm Murray; Music by The Album Leaf; Painters: Colossal Media/Sky High Murals/Bob Middleton; Presented by Stella Artois

San Quentin Film School

I recently stumbled upon this Discovery series which was created by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the director/producers behind Brother’s Keeper and the Paradise Lost films.

A wonderful concept and it’s beautifully shot, proving that beautiful cinematography and wonderful story telling do have a place on TV and in the documentary/journalism world.

Zoo

Zoo - If Terrence Malick and David Lynch were morphed into one person and made a documentary film about zoophiles -- ZOO would be it. Some of the most amazing cinematography and visuals I've seen in a long time. Cinematic eye candy and a revolution in doc-film making.

Words

Made by Everynone (in Collaboration with WNYC's Radiolab & NPR)

Directed by Daniel Mercadante & Will Hoffman

Supervising Producer: Robert Krulwich
Original Score: Keith Kenniff (http://unseen-music.com)

http://www.everynone.com

Lucas With The Lid Off

Michel Gondry is still the king of the one take.

Summer of 1994

When I was 13 I spent a summer at Phillips Exeter Academy.

As these documents show, I must have 1) told my brother never to go in my room when I wasn't there and 2) that my photography teacher didn't like my style very much.

Plastic Bag

Plastic Bag
by Ramin Bahrani

Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker.

1,890 miles in 39 hours

Film Festival Rejection: A Response

Film Festival Rejection; A Response

Film festivals typically send you rejection notices that read like sterile hall passes. For all I know, they never even watched my film. They just took my submission fee and ran. I've taken to writing them response letters upon receiving the rejection notice, not because I believe that they'll respond (I'm 0 for 4 on responses) but because I know that somewhere, someone is receiving my passive aggressive e-mail and they're either getting angry at me or frustrated that my e-mail is clogging up their in-box.

Here is my response to the new 2010 New Orleans Film Festival's above rejection letter:


To Whom It May Concern,

Thank you for the update on the status of my festival submission. I am wondering though why the film was not accepted into the 2010 program. Perhaps your input and critique could shed some light on how my short documentary could have better fit into your programming.

I know that my film is a beautiful film, with a simple portrait for a story. The film has been accepted at other film festivals and has been received well by my peers who happen to include famous filmmakers and photographers. Knowing that, I am genuinely interested in what you didn't like about the film, personal taste aside. After all, just because one person doesn't like a film doesn't mean that the film is bad, or warrants a rejection. Film festivals are not popularity contests, but rather forums to present quality film making to the public.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Sincerely,

Rod Blackhurst

Pecker Size Not Unrelated to Declining PC Sales

Pecker Size Not Unrelated to Declining PC Sales

I love spam mail. Like this company thinks I'm going to somehow decided to get my drugs through them. Right. Oh, and they've used the word pecker. Pecker was a cool word in, say, I don't know, 5th grade. But their business model is based on it. I'm probably not going to get my meds through them.

Catfish

'Catfish'

In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

How Much Hipster Can You Pack In That Jazz

Mr. Hudson making Jay-Z sound good

It's Kind Of A Funny Story

Fudge.

Sony Walkman Ad = Brilliant

Flame Throwers Are Always Cool

Directed by Tomas Mankovsky

Cast/ Performers (in order of appearance)

Old Man - Keith Francis
Flame Man - Adam Speers
Ice Man - Phil Zimmerman

Producer - Patrick Craig

Casting Director - Sophie North

Editor - Julian Tranquille

Post Production Supervisor - Justin Brukman

1st AD - Chris Kelly
1st AD - Ben Fogg
Production Manager - Adam Shaw

Director Of Photography - Adam Frisch
Focus Puller - Jeremy Fusco
Phantom Technician - John Hadfield
Camera Assistant - Roland Philip
7D Camera Assistant - Chris Nunn
Gaffer - Tony Miller
Spark - Jim Okeffe
Spark - Chris Georgeous
Spark - Jason Fletcher
Genny Op - Kevin Cooli
Genny Op - Lee Parfit

Art Directors

Arthur De Borman
Sam Ludgate

Special Effects - Artem
Special Effects Supervisor - Simon Tayler
Special Effects Technicians - Toby Stewart
Special Effects Technicians - Jonathan Bickerdike
Special Effects Technicians - Matt Loader

Hair & Make Up - Izzy Broad
Stylist - Tess Loe
Stylist Assistant - Daisy Babbington

Fire Cover - 1st Defense
Medical Cover - Location Medical
Animals - A-Z Animals - Gerry Cott

Photography - Marcus Palmqvist
Photography Assistant - Belinda Foord

Production Assistant - Rob Leonard
Runner - Sophia Marks
Runner - Lola Marks
Runner - Anna Fogg

Special Thanks To

Cut and Run
Take 2 Films
MPC
Green Door Films
Panalux
Black Country Parks
San Remo Café

UP as the movie Inception.

Okay. Wow.

Kisses

Nike: Take it To the Future - Director's Cut

John Butler Trio 'Revolution'

John Butler Trio
'Revolution'
from the album April Uprising
Director | James Minchin III
Director of Photography + Editor | Rod Blackhurst

Doniphan, Missouri

A Valedictorian's Speech

(The following was read as the valedictorian's speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in recent weeks, creating quite a stir among administrators, to great applause from students and many of their parents.)

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master: "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?" The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." (The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast - How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" (Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking." Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, "You have to learn this for the test" is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Nathaniel Rateliff - Early Spring Till

Stop Motion Walk Across America

Just saw this on Planet5D:



Behind the Scenes:



Oh, and double bonus, its set to an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's song.

having NIKE steal your idea always sucks

In 2009 my friend Kelly Magelky and I ventured over to France to shoot some spec and promo pieces for Trek. Kelly had written a spot called 'Voices of Livestrong' where cancer survivors told their stories over footage of Lance Armstrong suffering and then persevering in the Tour de France. We also spot this piece.



Well it looks like Nike 'borrowed' the two ideas and worked them both into this spot.



Funny how the spot literally looks and sounds like both commercial ideas. Well not funny, more depressing than funny.

11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos

I don’t think you’ll have time to watch a 17 minute infomercial about the 11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos but you probably should.

California Is A Place - Honey Pie

Her lips are full and pink. Her teal green eyes are intense and inviting. Her black eyeliner accentuates her high cheekbones and her strawberry hair complements her light African skin. Her metallic halter dress holds her supple thighs and pushes on her round breast. She is the result of careful attention and workmanship. When you see her up close, you can’t help but stare. At $6000, she’s certainly not a cheap date. For creator, Matt McMullen, she's a work of art. For everyone else, she's a Real Doll.

Julianne Moore. Naked with lion cubs.

Julianne Moore. Naked with lion cubs. For Bulgari's Fall-Winter 2010-11 ad campaign photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

CNN Poll of the Day

CNN Poll of the Day. Really? This is what the biggest news outlet in the US is polling about?

5 year old plays Johnny Cash

Forest Aerials. Dreamy.

music: Chronik - www.myspace.com/chronikath

250-1000 Frames Per Second: A Love Affair With the Phantom

Eleven minutes of HD highspeed slowmotion. 2008.

Alternative edit with the footage of 40 second commercial.
Commercial was directed by Acne Film. Directors: Daniel De Viciola & Marcus Linner. DOP: Fredrik Bäckar

Footage was shot with Phantom HD highspeed camera with Hawk anamorphic lenses. Framerates were from 250 to 1000 per sec.

Music: "Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun" By M83.
"Lazy Eye" (Jimmy Tamborello Accordion Remix) by Silversun Pickups. "Eagle Eyez" by Mr. Flash.

Check out also the making film for the spot. It can be found here: www.tommikoo.com

Get Low

No one really understands Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), who lives as a hermit deep in the woods. Rumors surround him, like how he might have killed in cold blood, and that he's in league with the devil. So the town is surprised when Felix shows up in town, demanding a "living funeral" for himself. Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the owner of the Funeral Parlor, sees an opportunity for some money, and agrees to let the townsfolk tell Felix Bush the stories they've heard about him. Things get messy when an old mystery is brought back by Quinn's protege Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black), involving a local widow named Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek). When Felix's funeral rolls around, however, he'll tell the townsfolk exactly why he's been alone in the woods for so many years.

Levi's 'Go Work'

Quick on the heels of their “Go Forth” campaign, Levi’s traces their roots in Americana a few steps deeper with their current documentary “We Are All Workers”. The Workers project aims to “empower and inspire” with their tales of the new American worker. ‘Go Work’ is the beautiful prologue to the ‘eleven part series documenting the new pioneers of Braddock, PA and the redevelopment of their town’. Australian director John Hillcoat (who also directed The Road and The Proposition) handled the theme and look of this opening piece and it lays out some unquestionably ‘Terrence Malick’ Days of Heaven aesthetics.

'Go Work'

Ryan Adams + Live = Too Darn Good

Upstate New York - Sailing on Lake George

Went sailing yesterday with Rachel, my sister, who is graduating high school today, and my father.

John Butler Trio - Production Stills

New OKGo music video

This will soon be the biggest thing on the internet.

The Only Band In Town

The Only Band In Town

director ROD BLACKHURST
director of photography GARETH PAUL COX
edited by ROD BLACKHURST & DAVID EBELTOFT
produced by ROD BLACKHURST & KYRIE COX
original music by JEREMY MCCOY, NATHAN STENGREVICS & LOWELL STRINGER



The Only Band In Town is a straightforward portrait of four casual bluegrass musicians in rural upstate New York. North Creek, NY has a population of 1,837 and only one band, the Don't Quit Your Day Job Band, whose members include an old hippie, Melody, who moved to NYC during the Vietnam War with nothing but a bag of records and a guitar on her back, a small town old timer, Buckshot, who has spent his entire life in the same tiny community, Larry, a family man who seems to have forgotten about his family, and a cross dresser, Stephanie, who is the band leader and 'father' of three girls.

theonlybandintown.com
rodblackhurst.com

The Tallest Man On Earth & Nathaniel Rateliff cover Dylan's 'The Man In Me'

Craigslist ad fail. Hoolywood? Hmm. Lava mics? Hmmm.

Down By Law. Buzz off.

Down By Law. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

Down By Law

Down By Law. Jarmusch is just so darn good sometimes. If this doesn’t make you wish you could be in New Orleans in 1980 then you may be a few cards short of a deck.

winter + central NY + film

Ben Harper music video shot in Syracuse, NY, in the dead of winter. Documentary/short film style.

Bon Iver covers my most favorite 80's song ever

Händewaschen Ultra Fail : You don't need to speak German to understand whats about to happen.

I guess they built Sioux City on rock n roll. I didn't know that.

Inglourious Basterds Slates

Okay, so awesome?!

Jakob Dylan + T Bone Burnett

The Jakob Dylan / T Bone Burnett short I directed with my friend James Minchin.

Netflix = Fail (?)

I've rated 596 moves on Netflix and they don't have one suggestion. Great.

back to California

The past five weeks have been busy. We moved back to Los Angeles. I've been shooting a documentary project in the deep south. I'm trying to find an agent. I've been working on getting my website updated. I've been working on getting The Only Band In Town into film festivals. And I'm trying to soak up all the photographs and film I can wrap my head around.

Monroe, Louisiana

Malibu, CA

Edwards, Mississippi

Tallulah, Louisiana

George's Grill - Shreveport

Drive By Moon

Talking 'Bout Something - Hanson

meritocracy

mer·i·toc·ra·cy 1. an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.

Honda 'Impossible Dream' Commercial

A Life In the Day - by John Mayer

Filmed on May 5, 2010, a mostly first-person chronicle of the day's events leading up to a performance in Wollongong, Australia. Shot on Canon 5D mkII with 50mm 1.2 and 24-70 lenses.

best music video of 2010 (so far)

WhoMadeWho - Keep Me In My Plane from Leroy Hanghofer on Vimeo.

March Across America - Week 1

On and off for the next 6 months I'm walking across America filming a documentary with my friends Brett Brownell, Jacob Marshall, and Andy Mellon about Zach Bonner, a 12 year old philanthropist who is walking from Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles, California to raise awareness of homeless youth.

March Across America

Just because we're out working though doesn't mean we can't have a little fun as well...

I Penned The Suckiest Movie Ever - 'Battlefield Earth' writer apologizes

Let me start by apologizing to anyone who went to see "Battlefield Earth."

It wasn't as I intended -- promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn't really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.

It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker.

It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women.

Willy convinced me to go check it out. Touring the building, I didn't find any eligible women at first, but I did meet Karen Hollander, president of the center, who said she was a fan of "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." We ended up talking for over two hours. She told me why Scientology is so great. I told her that, when it comes to organized religion, anything a person does to reward, threaten and try to control people by using an unknown like the afterlife is dangerous.

Nonetheless, Karen called me a few days later asking if I'd be interested in turning any of L. Ron Hubbard's books into movies. Eventually, I had dinner with John Travolta, his wife Kelly Preston, Karen -- about 10 Scientologists in all. John asked me, "So, J.D., what brought you to Scientology?"

I told him. John smiled and replied, "We have tech that can help you handle that." I don't know if he meant they had technology that would help me get laid or technology that would stop Willy from doing the majority of my thinking.

I researched Scientology before signing on to the movie, to make sure I wasn't making anything that would indoctrinate people. I took a few courses, including the Purification Rundown, or Purif. You go to CC every day, take vitamins and go in and out of a sauna so toxins are released from your body. You're supposed to reach an "End Point." I never did, but I was bored so I told them I had a vision of L. Ron. They said, "What did he say?" "Pull my finger," was my response. They said I was done.

During my Scientology research, I met an employee who I instantly had a crush on. She was kind of a priestess, and had dedicated her life to working for the church by becoming a Sea Org member. She said that she signed a billion-year contract. I said, "What! Really?" She said she got paid a small stipend of $50 a week, to which I said, "Can you get an advance on the billion years, like say, a mere $500,000?" And then she said as a Sea Org member, you can't have sex unless you're married. I asked her if she was married. She said yes. So I said, "Great! That means we can have sex!"

As far as I know, I am the only non-Scientologist to ever be on their cruise ship, the Freewind. I was a bit of an oddity, walking around in a robe, sandals, smoking Cuban cigars and drinking fine scotch (Scientologists are not allowed to drink while taking courses). I also got one of the best massages ever. My friends asked if I got a "happy ending." I said, "Yes, I got off the ship."

But if you're reading this to get the dirt on Scientology, sorry, no one ever tried to force me to do anything.

Even after all the "trouble" I'd gotten into, people at the church liked me, so I read "Battlefield Earth" and agreed to come up with a pitch to take to studios.
I met with Mike Marcus, the president of MGM, and pitched him my take. He loved it, and the next day negotiations went under way. A few days after I finished the script, a very excited Travolta called, told me he "loved it," and wanted to have dinner. At dinner, John said again how much he loved the script and called it "The 'Schindler's List' of sci-fi."

My script was very, VERY different than what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn't have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.

Shortly after that, John officially attached himself to the project. Then several A-list directors expressed interest in making the movie, MGM had a budget of $100 million, and life was grrrrreat! I got studio notes that were typical studio notes. Nothing too crazy. I incorporated the notes I felt worked, blew off the bad ones and did a polish. I sent it to the studio, thinking the next I'd hear is what director is attached.

Then I got another batch of notes. I thought it was a joke. They changed the entire tone. I knew these notes would kill the movie. The notes wanted me to lose key scenes, add ridiculous scenes, take out some of the key characters. I asked Mike where they came from. He said, "From us." But when I pressed him, he said, "From John's camp, but we agree with them."

I refused to incorporate the notes into the script and was fired.

I HAVE no idea why they wanted to go in this new direction, but here's what I heard from someone in John's camp: Out of all the books L. Ron wrote, this was the one the church founder wanted most to become a movie. He wrote extensive notes on how the movie should be made.

Many people called it a Scientology movie. It wasn't when I wrote it, and I don't feel it was in the final product. Yes, writers put their beliefs into a story. Sometimes it's subtle (I guess L. Ron had something against the color purple, I have no idea why), sometimes not so subtle (L. Ron hated psychiatry and psychologists, thus the reason, and I'm just guessing here, that the bad aliens were called "Psychlos").

The only time I saw the movie was at the premiere, which was one too many times.

Once it was decided that I would share a writing credit, I wanted to use my pseudonym, Sir Nick Knack. I was told I couldn't do that, because if a writer gets paid over a certain amount of money, they can't. I could have taken my name completely off the movie, but my agent and attorney talked me out of it. There was a lot of money at stake.

Now, looking back at the movie with fresh eyes, I can't help but be strangely proud of it. Because out of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest.

In the end, did Scientology get me laid? What do you think? No way do you get any action by boldly going up to a woman and proclaiming, "I wrote Battlefield Earth!" If anything, I'm trying to figure out a way to bottle it and use it as birth control. I'll make a mint!

Filming Rights in NYC

Nostaligia

Anna Verlet

Dear Swell Season. You steal my heart every time.

NYC in Miniature

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

Music Voyager, airing in Denver

The TV show that I'm the Director of Photography for is finally airing in Denver.

Tuesday March 22nd at 9PM MST on KBDI Channel 12

Please watch and let me know what you think of the cinematography!

Shreveport

Kenny Wayne Shepherd - Shreveport


Municipal Auditorium Shreveport