Fruitvale Station

A few weeks ago my friends, Dennis and Tif, invited me to see Fruitvale Station with them.  I already had plans, so I wasn't able to go with them. Some free time presented itself today, so I went with a couple of my cousins to watch the movie.  I remember hearing about the story when it happened, but watching this movie really raised my emotions.

When the premiered at Sundance, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to wait to see it.  It lived up to its expectations in every way, especially story and cast.  Octavia Spencer is amazing in the role, but I expected that.  The writer, Ryan Coogler, did an amazing job of making the characters relatable.  This is his first feature film, and look at what he was able to accomplish.

I don't want to say too much and ruin the movie for those who aren't familiar with the story.  Just know that our country has a problem. Our country has a problem, and part of the problem is the amount of people who are unaware that there's a problem.  Hopefully Fruitvale Station reaches enough people that   our country is exposed.  Something has to be done, y'all.  There's really nothing else to say. This story will stay with me for a while.

Way Too Real

As I stood in the shower this morning, I couldn't help but think about my brush with death yesterday. Technically, it wasn't a brush with death, but as far as my mind was concerned, it was. I'll start from the beginning...

My buddy, Joey, and I were on our way to class yesterday morning. In our typical fashion, we were completely engaged in conversation about our upcoming films.  Seriously, I have nothing else going on in my life right now, so all I have to talk about is my movie.  Luckily, even though he has more going on, he's always down to hear about my film and talk about his. I was on autopilot on our way to class as I rambled on and on about my film.

There are certain things that happen in my day to day life that I look back on and point out as "foreshadowing". Well, there were several instances on our drive when people were honking. I would ask Joey, "Are they honking at us?" They weren't, but just to give you a sense of the foreshadowing.

Okay, so we're engrossed in conversation, driving to class, going over a bridge, when we hear a train horn.  It was extremely loud and all my mind could conceive of was that this train was honking at us because it was about to hit us. There were only three things that ran through my mind in that instance. 1.) How did I not see the train? 2.) My negligence has gotten us both killed.  3.) I'm sorry, Joey.

For some reason, in the movies and on tv, they always say that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. That wasn't the case for me.  I told you what happened.  I had time to think three things.  When I thought, "I'm sorry", I couldn't even speak it. I thought it and it was directed at Joey. It was my apology to him for killing him when he had so much to live for and look forward to.  I thought those three things and then I expected to be slammed into by a train.  Never mind that I was on a bridge and the train was passing under me.  For some reason none of that reality entered my mind.  All that happened was the insanely loud train horn, those three thoughts, and BAM!

When we were not killed on impact, or should I say, when we continued to drive over the bridge as the train continued to drive under us, I looked at Joey and we laughed about how loud and scary that train was.  I've since told several people of our near death experience and no one seems to fully understand how for a second there, I honestly thought my life was over.  When I realized we were okay, I started to cry.  I was so happy to be alive!  I know I didn't almost die.  I know I was out of harm's way, but it still scared me.

One of the things that I realized, and I'm actually really proud of this, but I wasn't afraid of dying.  I thought it was about to happen, I expected it to happen, and I wasn't scared.  Don't get me wrong, I was sad about it, but I had accepted it.  I thought about it all day yesterday, and clearly, I keep thinking about it today.  I think about what I'd leave behind. The unfinished projects. The people my death would effect.  Who would my roommate, Cody, live with? Who would she kill bugs for? Would J'Vanne, my producer, make Collectible Items?  Who would direct it? When was the last time I talked to my parents? My siblings? My extended family? My friends?  Would I go to heaven? Have I lived my life in a way that's pleasing to God? It's a lot to think about.

You've all seen The Shawshank Redemption, right?  Andy says, "Get busy living, or get busy dying."  I've always felt that way, but now I feel like it's reinforced.  Time to get double focused.  What do you guys think? What would James Franco do?  My guess is that he'd get busy living.  I woke up today feeling happy to be alive.



#WWJFD

Movie in the Cemetery....Only in Cali

Last summer, one of my friends introduced me to something super strange yet ridiculously amazing. She sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to a movie. I said yes, and I asked when. She responded with a date that was for three weeks later. Already, I was confused. Who plans to go to a movie three weeks out? So I asked what movie we were gonna see.  She said we'd watch The Exorcist. Remember when I was already confused? Watching a movie that had been out for 30 years.  And then, she said where we'd see it: in the cemetery.

Immediately I was intrigued.  A movie in the cemetery? What in the world was this going to be like. I'll tell you what it was going to be like: AMAZING!

As we pulled up to the cemetery, the amount of people walking there, carrying blankets and picnic stuff is insane. So many people! And the line to get in - forget about it. It wrapped worst than amusement park rides.  The line was incredibly long, and it just kept getting longer. We didn't have to wait in that line though, because we parked inside the cemetery.  We picked our spot on the grass and I just stood there in awe as the people continued to migrate in and set up camp.

We proceeded to unpack our picnic and enjoy our dinner while a DJ played music.  A movie in the cemetery is amongst one of the craziest phenomenons I've experienced.  While there, I vowed to share the experience with anyone who'd let me. Today was that day.

Three weeks ago I sent an email to my local friends and told them that Taxi Driver was playing tonight and asked if they wanted to go.  A few people expressed interest and bought their tickets.  I was nervous that they wouldn't have the same experience that I did and that they wouldn't be as impressed.  But I quickly learned that everyone has the same reaction the first time they go. No amount of description an prepare you for an amazing evening of bonding with 2,500 other people. Everyone is just outside having a great time. The mood is collectively chill, and once the movie starts - silence.  Everyone is so respectful, which makes for a great movie going experience.

They only play the movies during the summer, from May-September. So far this is the only time I've gone this year. I'm hoping to get to at least one more. If you're curious about it, you should check it out. www.cinespia.org

If you're asking yourself why I wasn't working, the answer is simple. I stayed up til 4:30am working. I finished the website for my next film, Collectible Items. You should check it out: www.CollectibleItemsTheMovie.com. And when I finished that, I thought it would be a good idea to work on my website: www.edrei.com. When I finished that, I finally went to bed.

After a week of interviews and two website designs, I figured I could take a break and relax with friends. In keeping in the spirit of James Franco, I'll get a lot of work done tomorrow. I've been saying that I need to edit my director's reel. That sounds like a job for tomorrow!

#WWJFD

A Glimpse of My Future

Remember the other day when  I told you that I put out a post for a producer? Did I tell you that I got a lot of hits? Well, I did. And they weren't just shots in the dark; there are some severely qualified people out there, and today I interviewed some of them.

J'Vanne, my producer, and I spent hours sorting through the resumes and IMDB pages that were sent to us. We compiled a list of: yes, no and maybe. Needless to say, as we sorted through the list, the people in the maybe pile quickly found themselves in the no pile. I was freaking out yesterday because I had no idea where I was going to hold the meetings with the potential producers, and figured that I would just wind up at a coffee shop or cafe or something. Just as I was giving up on life, not really giving up on life, but feeling lost about where to meet people, I got a call from my Director of Photography, Gonzalo. You know, I'm not even sure why he called. But long story short, the call ended with him saying that if I needed to have any meetings, that I could use his office space at his studio.  Now, I will shamelessly plug his studio:

It is a green screen studio, but also has standing sets, or you can rent the space and build your own sets. It's called Glix Studios and is extremely affordable and located close to you!

http://www.glixstudios.com

I showed up this morning and had the first interview. The woman was amazing. All the while, I sat at the conference room table thinking that I could get use to this. I'm my own boss. I'm hiring someone to work for me and help advance my career. It was an amazing feeling. And at the end of the day, I didn't want to go home. I sat there thinking that I have so much work to do, that maybe I could just stay there and get some stuff done. I mean, I'm not insane or anything, so I came home. One of the people that I interviewed says she has access to a castle.  I want a castle. What my movie needs is a castle. She told me I can come check it out tomorrow. I think I might do that!

I have a full day of interviews lined up again for tomorrow and Friday. I feel like a kid on the first day of school. I'm super giddy and ready to go back again tomorrow. I can't wait to see who else I'll meet and what kind of experience they can bring to the table.

As usual, I'll ask myself, What Would James Franco Do?

#WWJFD

Set Life

Today I helped crew on my buddy's set. He's filming a Showtime-esq pilot called "Life's a Pitch", about the underbelly of the music industry. And guess what. He got Jason Richter (Jesse, from "Free Willy") as the lead! My job today was to be Production Manager.

I climbed into bed last night at 10:30, thinking that I would get a solid seven hours of sleep and be the biggest asset on set today. At 11:30, I rolled over and looked at my clock thinking that if I just got six hours of sleep, I could at least be a fully functioning member of the set. I guess that's around the time I drifted off, because the next thing I remember was waking up at 4:55 - a full 42 minutes before my alarm clock was scheduled to go off. Needless to say, I was sad. I maybe might have benefited from that almost hour of missed sleep. As Production Manager, my first job of the day was to pick up the coffee at 6am and be on set at 6:30 with breakfast set up. So I did that.

Our day started off rather smoothly. We were shooting on a street, so the staging area was in a parking lot a block away. It quickly became apparent that one of my jobs was going to be chauffeuring people back and forth to the bathroom. The place that the producer made an arrangement with didn't open until 10am, and when it did open...let's just say we found somewhere else to go. Part of my job was to problem solve, so...I shuttled people to a Jack in the Box around the corner.

Not only was I a bathroom taxi service, but I was also an ice machine. We had two ice chests: one at both camps. I don't know why, but the ice was melting faster than any ice I'd ever seen. It was magic melting ice. So I was back and forth to the 711 to buy bags of ice.

After lunch, the 2nd Assistant Director, Make-up and I had a treat. There was a guy riding up and down the street in a motorized recliner. That's right. He took an easy chair and put wheels and a motor on it. This guy was cruising down the street and Dennis yells out, "Hey man, can I take a picture?" The guy says, "Is there a sandwich in it for me?" Dennis told him that we didn't have any sandwiches, but we had other snacks. This guy took a sharp right turn and bee-lined it straight for us. He parked in front of our craft services table and asked what we had. We rattled off the list of snacks and he said, "give me a muffin, apple and granola bar." So we did. And then we proceeded to snap a paparazzi amount of photos.

Apparently this guy makes his on couch cars, and makes a new one every year. The model we were so fortunate to see was the 2013 edition. He said that the 2014 edition would blow our minds. I must admit...I'm a little curious. Check out his website: http://www.couchcar.com

Today was super long, but there is nothing like being on set. It's fun, Fun, FUN!!! Now, after my 15 hour work day, I'm doing homework for class tomorrow. A filmmaker's work is never done. But hey, What Would James Franco Do?





#WWJFD

Apartment Hunting, Producer Hunting and 24 - Oh My!

I have a list of things to do: practice my pitch, build my website, polish my ripomatic and finalize my business plan. Guess how much of that I did yesterday and today.

roommate and I have been searching for a house since March. Apparently, so has everyone else in southern Cali, because we looked and came up with nothing. Or we looked and someone beat us to it. Yesterday, we had some hits, so I went to check out four places. The entire time I was looking at potential homes, I was thinking, "I need to work on my pitch, ripo, website and biz plan." When I finally returned home, I had a text from my producing partner saying she was ready to Skype.

My producing partner and I made the decision that we need someone with feature experience to help us out on our film. So I wrote up a blurb and posted it on some sites, and we got an amazing response! However, that meant our workload was enhanced. And then there we were, sorting through emails of resumes and finding ourselves in the best situation possible. We spent several hours on Skype and we finally settled on some incredibly qualified people to meet with us next week for an interview.

Last night, I found myself sitting in living room, in my chair, after a hard day's work, having accomplished so much, but nothing on my list. It was after midnight. There was only one thing to do: watch 24. I didn't watch it when it was on television, and my buddy, Miguel, swears by this show, so I started to watch it. It was episode 24 of season 1 that hooked me. Now, if I have 45 minutes of down time, I like to fill it with a little Jack Bauer.

Anyway, I'm on my way to making a movie! Today I bought the domain name for the film, so be sure to check us out at www.collectibleitemsthemovie.com. It's not up yet, but I'll keep you posted. As you see, it's on my list of things to do.

Here's to having an even more productive tomorrow than I did yesterday or today. After all, what would James Franco do?

#WWJFD

Not So Pitch Perfect

Okay, so it is now time for me to start working on my pitch for my film. If you're wondering what a pitch is, it's a quick spiel about my movie and what I plan to have happen, and all that jazz. Well, I wrote it up and when I was going over it, I realized that it was not nearly as good as I want it to be.

I know that they're certain points that I need to hit when pitching:

Introduction
Logline
Protagonist Introduction
Production

I thought that it would be a piece of cake, seeing as how I'm a natural orator and all, but no. That Protagonist Intro part was hard! Who would have known that summarizing 99 pages into 3 paragraphs would be so difficult? I was told that it should be about five minutes long.

I practiced it and let's just say that underwhelmed is an understatement. That sucker needs work! And as I'm reading over it, looking for ways to make it better, I get a text from my friend, Joey. He later took a screenshot of our conversation and sent it to me, and that's what you're about to read. He's blue...

If he can talk to himself for ten minutes, then I've got more work to do. Time to get back to it! I have meetings lined up for next week. Practice makes perfect, and there's not such thing as being too prepared!

#WWJFD

Off the Grid

I woke up Friday morning with a brilliant idea - I would leave LA and go spend some quiet time in the country. It was a fool proof plan. I would spend some time with my Big Mommy, while also having some quiet time to get some work done. Everything was going smoothly, until...

I arrived at my Big Mommy's house and saw several cars. It seems that I wasn't the only one who had the brilliant idea to escape. My aunt showed up with her seven grandchildren, her son and her best friend. Plus, another one of my cousins was there, even though I'd spoken to him the day before and he said he was leaving. So I went from thinking I would have quiet time, to being surrounded by family.

Needless to say, I found myself being engrossed in fun conversations, taking a nap, being well fed and riding a go cart up and down the street with my teenage cousins. I managed to get about three solid hours of work in though, but I guess that was enough. I didn't have internet access, so I wasn't able to blog. Sorry if you missed me yesterday!

After hanging out with my family yesterday, I formulated a plan for today. Again, it was simple: I would leave early, come back home and do work. At 3:00pm, I said my goodbyes. I was prepared for my peaceful two hour drive. I had my music, my water and my alone time. I was ready. 15 minutes later, I was stopped on the highway, stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.  My ice had already started to melt in water and suddenly, my peaceful ride was anything but. Fast forward an hour, and I still wasn't where I should have been at that time. Fast forward another hour, and I found myself stopped in traffic again. This time, there were helicopters circling above, and they were dropping water on wild fires. The heat was almost unbearable, but I knew that I couldn't turn on my air conditioner. I've made that drive several times, and it never fails, there are always people pulled over on the side of the road with the hood of their car up because it over heated.

This is a PSA - if you are driving in the dessert, do not run your air conditioner in your car, because your car will overheat. Okay, don't say you didn't know; you've been warned.

So after watching the fires be extinguished and passing all of the people who's cars overheated, I finally made it home, a mere four hours after I started. And needless to say, I was so exhausted from the hot, sweaty ride home, that I was unable to do work. Now, here I am, three hours later, well rested and ready to work.

You'll be happy to know that I just posted an ad on Mandy.com, Craigslist and Stage32, looking for a Producer for my film. Here's hoping to get some replies and some good resumes! It's movie making time!!!!!

#WWJFD

It Finally Happened

I've lived in Burbank since Sept, 2011, and I was convinced that I was safe. Friends would come and visit and tell me of their horror stories, and I would say, "Oh, we don't have that problem." We didn't have that problem, until last night. Last night was when my world was forever changed.

Allow me to recap the evening for you.

As you recall, I'd just finished eating cake for dinner. So it was only normal for me to go to the kitchen to wash my bowl. (There may have been some ice cream involved...who's to say really?) I walk into the kitchen and flip on the light, and there, to my right, on the side of the wall, crawling like he had a reason to be there, was the first roach that I've seen in my apartment since moving to Cali. I immediately started yelling for my roommate, Cody. I was completely useless at this point. I might as well have been hit, because I was out for the count. Imagine me, standing there, screaming, while Cody scurried around to do all the work. I knew that where there was one, there were 1,999 more. Then, are you ready for this, we lost it. That's right, the roach just vanished and was gone.

The next two hours were as follows: Cody sitting on the couch looking scared, while I sat in my chair looking scared. Then, she suddenly got a surge of anger. This roach was not going to bully us in our own house. She was going to find that roach and kill it. And I was totally behind her - in spirit - because the physical me was standing in the middle of my bed, in my room, with my door closed.

Now, to have Cody tell you the story, she'll say that she looked under the sink and there it was. But I think she's downplaying it. I think it was more like:

There she was, face to face with the beast. The creature squinted its many eyes at her, and she didn't flinch, though a bead of sweat ran across her forehead. Determined to not let her fear show, Cody knew she only had seconds before the gigantic creature would eat her alive and then come for me next. She did what any caring roommate would have done. While staring the creature in the eyes, she waited for a moment of weakness and lunged for the can of Raid. Spraying almost as instantly as she grabbed it, she slid across the floor like a baseball player sliding into home plate. That gigantic creature didn't stand a chance that day. He picked the wrong house and the wrong gal to mess with.  I, on the other hand, stood on my bed, yelling through the door, "Are you okay? Did you kill it? Can I come out now?"

This is all to say, that I'm alive and well today because of one brave roommate. Her selflessness allowed me to stay up almost all night writing. I completed Collectible Items and registered the screenplay with the copyright office today. Woohoo! Moving making time!

#WWJFD

Red Velvet Cake for Dinner

I took a break from writing this afternoon and went to my buddy's BBQ. I don't know why it never occurred to me to take a burger to go. Here it is, six hours later, and I'm hungry, but by no means do I feel like cooking anything. I already see where this going...

Last night I texted my friend, Mira. She's out of town for work right now and has been working crazy hours. Our conversation was this:

Me: I just ate cake for dinner...
Mira: I'm eating blow pops haha
Me: We're the poster children for nutrition!
Mira: Haha. You're right.
Mira: Sleep deprived and eating candy for dinner. It's like we're 6.
Me: True!
Me: 6 and unsupervised!
Mira: At grandmas

You might be asking yourself how this conversation happened last night if I'm going to eat cake tonight...Yeah, you just figured it out. I'm about to have a repeat of last night's dinner.

Sunday was the Dexter premier for the new season, and my roommate, Cody, loves baking...and themes. So she baked a Dexter cake. It's just the two of us, and the cake is gigantic. Well, every time I walk into the kitchen and try to figure out what I'm going to make, the Dexter cake is just sitting there, looking at me like, "Are you seriously trying to tell me that you're going to spend time making something when you could just eat me? I'm already here. I'm already made. You love red velvet, and you bought milk yesterday." Then I sigh heavily, because the cake is right. I'm not going to spend time making something. I'm going to eat it. So for the 2nd night in a row, I, Edrei Hutson, am going to eat cake for dinner. Sigh. And then I will continue working on Collectible Items! I wonder if I can see the fireworks from my living room...

#WWJFD

Paying it Forward

Today I had a lunch meeting with the actor that I had in mind while writing Collectible Items, Joshua Adkins. We can even go so far as to say that I wrote this movie for him. He's not the protagonist, but he is the protagonist's love interest.

So, anyway, we met at our favorite Indian food spot in Studio City and spent some time catching up. He starred in a music video recently, was offered the role in a short film and is going on tons of auditions. He asked me what was going on with me, and I told him that I've been busy writing and that I'm so in the writing zone right now that I don't even want to think about doing anything else. However, that's not a luxury that I can afford, so in addition to spending the majority of my time writing, I'm also working on my business plan, looking for investors, working on my friends movie sets, researching films like mine, etc.

From there, we started talking about how busy we are, but it's a good busy.  I told him that my buddy is having a BBQ tomorrow for the 4th, and I don't even want to go. I honest to God just want to stay home and work on Collectible Items. People keep telling me that I need to relax and have some down time. But I feel like even though I'm working all of the time, I still have a lot of downtime. It may not be the same type of downtime that other people have, because it is work related, but it's still downtime.
Right now, I'm writing in my blog. I classify this as work and downtime. I'm heading off to a meeting in 10 minutes: work and downtime. Tonight, I'll work on the character breakdown for my Casting Director. If you guessed that it's gonna be work and downtime, then you are correct!

So I was telling my friend this, and he totally got it. He commented on how funny it is that no matter how hard you work, you can always work harder. That was when I introduced him to the What Would James Franco Do philosophy. I find myself working hard, but I'm not working nearly as hard as I could be. There are 24 hours in a day. Granted, it is physically impossible for me to utilize all of those hours, but I could use way more than what I do use. I elaborated a little more and told him that my plan is to work harder than I've been working to make sure that everything is in place in November so that I can make my movie. And you know what? I inspired him. He said that he liked my WWJFD mentality and he felt moved to adopt that philosophy as well. And just like that, the word began to spread. What Would James Franco Do? - motivating one person at a time.

#WWJFD

You Will Have A Productive Day...In Bed

I woke up today with one goal - finish this latest draft of my script. And guess what; I did! And I did it all from the comforts of my bed. I got out of bed and moved to the living room, but it didn't have the same vibe as the bed, so I went ahead and set up shop there. My bed gets a gold star for stepping up as an A+ office for the day.

As of today, I've completed four drafts of Collectible Items, and each one is better than the last. I guess that's the point though, so...success! I also managed to do two loads of laundry and flirted with the idea of cleaning the bathroom. That bathroom idea was short lived. It sounds like a job for Future Edrei.

Unfortunately, the one thing I've learned is that once you finish one draft, it's time to start another. I finished the last 25 pages of the script (Act 3), and in that process, I found things that I needed to go back and set up in the beginning. For example, if my protagonist is going to outrun a swarm of angry, killer bees at the end of the film, then I need to go back in my story and show her being a runner. That way the audience buys that she can outrun the angry swarm of bees. Also, the moviegoers who like to solve movies ahead of time will see the angry swarm of bees and say to themselves, "She'll be fine. She's a runner. She can get away."

So now, I'm going back to the first Act and working my way through. Setting up these little gems is going to be difficult, but it's fun to discover them and see how they'll affect the overall story.  I just discovered that clocks/time is a theme in my film. I had no idea. I'm very interested to see what I discover next! Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

#WWJFD

I'm Back!

I haven't blogged in almost two years. Let's just say that film school has been extremely time consuming. Whoever said that getting an MFA in Filmmaking is easy was ill informed!

As some of you may be aware, I should be wrapping on my thesis and preparing to graduate in September, but I elected to stay in school for an extra semester and shoot a feature film as my thesis. The choice to go the Feature route seemed like a no brainer to me at the time; I knew I wanted to shoot a feature film eventually, so why not do it when I could still utilize my school's resources as well as the support from the teachers. Needless to say, everyday since I announced I would be doing "Thesis Option B: Feature Track", the work load has continued to grow. This is not like Pre-Production for a short film. I'm not even in Pre-Production yet! I've been developing this movie since this time last year, and I'm still only in the Development phase.

I'm currently working on the fourth draft of my script. I plan to have this draft finished by Friday. Collectible Items is a thriller that I came up with while I produced a film for my friend Jacob. I wrote the first script and was surprised by how easily it flowed. I had my first table read on May 14 and received amazing feedback. I'm overwhelmed with excitement and nervousness all at the same time. I just need to keep focused and keep trucking along. I'll look to this blog as relief when I get stuck in my script or I just need a break. Stay tuned! Collectible Items goes into Production in November. You don't want to miss it!

#WWJFD