Invisible Cities Production Journal: Entry #1

Today is October 1, 2007.

Recently, I left my home of the last five years, New York City, for my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The goal:

To write and direct my first feature-length film.

With the rise of YouTube and digital cinema, Independent film has changed drastically for the better. In 1991, Robert Rodriguez made a little action film, El Mariachi, on 16mm for 7,000 dollars. It eventually went on to play at Sundance and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Rodriguez proved you didn’t need a lot of money to make a decent film.

No one listened.

Twelve years later, an ex-engineer, Shane Carruth, made a brilliant time travel movie called Primer. Shot for 7,000 on 16mm film, Primer once again proved you didn’t need a lot of money to make a good film. Primer went on to win Sundance in 2004.

And still, no one listened.

People continued to make expensive films that didn’t connect with audiences. Hundreds of thousands dollars were spent on films that went nowhere.

Finally, some people listened.

The recent movement in Independent Film, the D.I.Y. movement, or “mumblecore” or whatever you choose to call it, has actually changed independent cinema for the better. Taking the emphasis away from slick (and expensive) production values, and instead pushing story and character, this new movement is currently redefining the meaning of independent cinema.

Filmmakers like Joe Swanberg (LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs), Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation), The Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair), Aaron Katz (Quiet City), and Susan Boice/Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) are responsible for changing the way feature films are created and distributed. More importantly, these filmmakers, free from the restrictive structure of the Hollywood web, are free to explore ideas unfavorable with corporate executives yet completely relevant with the audience.

This new movement is partly responsible for inspiring me to begin work on Invisible Cities.

After a year of false starts, creative doubts, and an especially difficult winter, I decided to take action. I began writing the screenplay for what would eventually become Invisible Cities in March of 2007. Initially inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, I drew mainly from personal experiences while writing the script. This film isn’t about me, though. Rather, it is about anyone who has ever left their home and had a tough time going back.

My hope with this journal is to accurately document my experiences during the making of Invisible Cities.

I will update it regularly, so please continue to check back for future updates.

In the meantime, I encourage all of you to check out a mix I’ve created in the ITunes store featuring music I listened to while writing Invisible Cities.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=265571551