Excited (and geeky)

To movie fans, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is the #1 site for all movie info. If you want to know who was in such and such a movie, and what their role was, there is really no other place to look. IMDb.com has pictures (screen shots, behind-the-scenes, and publicity), trivia, links to reviews, and more.

To those of us who dream of "being in Hollywood", surfing IMDb is about as close as we get. And being listed on the site? Distant fantasy!

Until now.

I'M LISTED ON IMDB.COM!!!!

Someone added me as Jeff Martin (XIII), (that is, the 13th unique person credited in a movie or television show as "Jeff Martin"). In the Elsewhere credits I will actually be credited as "Jeffrey Stuart Martin", so when the movie comes out I might try to change my listing. I chose to use my full name to increase my originality (and therefore name recognition), but I haven't decided definitively what name I want to use in my film career.

Interestingly enough, if my experience working on Elsewhere is any indication, people who actually work on movies, (as opposed to merely being geekily obsessed with them) couldn't care less about IMDb. Sure, maybe they use it once in a while to look something up, but they don't pore over the credits of their favorite movies, or link to it from their blogs.

I have long been firmly in the category of IMDb movie geek, but learning that it might not be cool for a filmmaker to be an IMDb movie geek has put a dent in my enthusiasm. Oh well. For now, I will celebrate!

Why Goshen is the next Hollywood

A few times over the course of my film internship with Elsewhere, when I mentioned that I was interested in working on more films, people implied that this sort of work would be much easier to find in LA (or, I presume, in New York). I'm sure this is true, but having just bought a house in the merry little town of Goshen, I have no intention of moving any time soon. In any case, I'm not particularly worried about my film career, because I think that Goshen is the next Hollywood.

According to an article on independent film by David Bordwell, companies like Fox and MGM started out as "independents" who moved to the west coast to get away from "the studio" (at the time, the Motion Picture Patents Company). More and more people starting making independent films, and at some point the town of Hollywood, CA became synonomous with filmmaking. New York, and more recently, Chicago, have also become big places for filmmaking, simply because people started making films there.

In the last few years, people have started making films in Goshen. New World Arts has not one, but two short film festivals every year. A few years ago, a Goshen College grad that I went to school with made the award-winning Pearl Diver. Other Goshen residents and GC grads worked on and starred in Corduroy. Actor Steve Buscemi and LOTR star Liv Tyler directed and starred (respectively) in Lonesome Jim, filmed in Goshen and nearby Cromwell. And finally, Elsewhere, the film I worked on, was not only filmed in Goshen, but is set in Goshen, Indiana, and features actors from cult favorite films Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite.

Clearly, Goshen is not only producing film talent, but also attracting it. This is why I fully intend to continue my career in film, not by flying to California (although I do hope to do that some time), but by involving myself in the myriad of film projects that are going to keep coming to Goshen, Indiana.

Thank you for smoking

This is not one of my usual movie reviews. I'm writing this review from the perspective of my job at a public library (although this is not an official library document, nor does it necesarily reflect the values of the library). The head of the AV deparment asked me to preview it, to see if it might be appropriate for our collection in spite of it's R rating (for language and some sexual content).

Thank you for smoking is a very sarcastic film. Being, as I am, not always great at understanding sarcasm, I'm not entirely sure what the point of the film is. But I think it is a commentary on the ridiculous lengths to which tobacco companies go to keep people smoking, even though everyone knows that smoking is bad for you.

A movie with this goal is admirable, but I'm not sure that it would find much audience at this library. It seems to be aimed at overly-educated, politically liberal people; the same people who drive hybrid cars and eat vegetarian food. I haven't done any studies, but I think that a large percentage of our patrons are Amish (who quit school at age 16), or otherwise reasonably conservative Christian people, and I have never seen a Prius in the parking lot. If they watch films at all, they are likely to choose Little House of the Prairie, or VeggieTales. Some patrons do check out popular documentaries like Supersize Me and Bowling for Columbine, but, come to think of it, I requested both of those for the library.

One thing I was supposed to pay close attention to was the language in the film. Is it really so bad? Yes and no. On one hand, there aren't people cursing up a violent storm. Instead, there are a number of characters who casually pepper their everyday speech with the f-word. Not as shocking, but perhaps a surer sign of a lost soul, and definitely not a great role-model for good Christian children (or adults).

Returning to the theme of sarcasm, if the movie is intended as a tongue-in-cheek story, then it is appropriate that the characters show their moral degradation through foul language. The question is, will our patrons see it that way, or will they just be offended? Considering the care we generally take to avoid offending our patrons, I think this is one film our collection can do without.

Yay snow!

I think I probably post this every fall, but here it is again, perhaps in more mature words, now that I'm a year older:

Yay, it's snowing!!!!!!!!!!

At work we have one of those big tins with three kinds of popcorn. Between that and the wind-driven snow, it's starting to feel like Christmas!

The irony of leaf blowers

Having recently had an otherwise pleasant autumn stroll ruined by a noisy, smelly leaf blower, I am struck by the irony of such a machine. Dry leaves scuttling across the pavement is one of autumn's signature sounds. It brings back happy memories of walking in refreshing Autumn air, jumping in leaf piles, or trick-or-treating at Halloween. It's a great stress reliever.

So why would anyone invent a machine that is God-awfully loud, stinks like Hades, and whose sole purpose is to get rid of the beautiful leaves??? Please chastise me severely if I ever purchase one of these horrific devices.