Mumble, Mumble, Mumble...Mumblecore!

"It's just Mark and me against ourselves and the universe."

That's how Jay Duplass (on right in photo) described the working process that he and his brother Mark Duplass (left) follow when creating a movie. They were the star presenters at a 2010 South by Southwest film festival panel titled "The Kids Are Alright."

Some of the Brothers Duplass's movies include the 2010 release, Cyrus, starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill and Catherine Keener, and a number of more specifically "mumblecore" features such as The Puffy Chair and Baghead.

"There is a lot of improvisation in our movies," Jay Duplass said. "We don't do a lot of planning." And even when a movie has comedic elements, "it's a drama first."

Yet, added Mark Duplass, "Jay and I have a rule: to write as funny and light as possible."

Despite all of the improvisation and creating movies more from outlines than from scripts, "Mark and I are obsessed with plot and story," Jay Duplass insisted. But they also remain "open to risk and chance."

They also follow a particular procedure while shooting their movies. "We shoot in story order," Jay Duplass said. And they aren't afraid to re-shoot scenes that have been improvised. "The rule of thumb is: If you're wondering if you got it or not, you definitely didn't get it."

-- Si Dunn

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'Waco' Movie Controversy Takes a New Texas Twist

One of the producers involved in the controversial movie project Waco has resigned her post as head of international sales for Entertainment 7 and contends that political "pressure from above" the Texas Film Commission caused state incentives to be denied to the $30 million production, which focuses on the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff that left more than 80 people dead.

Tara Wood adds that her work on the Waco project "as it pertains to assistance with funding" is complete, and she will return to Austin soon to focus on her Texas-based entertainment distribution company. Emilio Ferrari, head of Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Entertainment 7, will remain the Waco project's lead producer, she says.

"It’s very unfortunate that Texas will not benefit from this project," she says. "I’ve lived in Austin for 15 years, going back and forth to L.A., and have been actively involved in trying to get the film community back on track. This is quite a blow. I was very encouraged when the most recent bump in incentives went through, because it actually allowed us to consider Texas to shoot. I’m shocked at this [Texas Film Commission] decision.

"Since Mr. Ferrari has made that ridiculous statement 'will never ever shoot in Texas,' I have left his company as head of international sales of Entertainment 7. I’ll be damned if I worked this hard to have someone be that reckless! I have a Texas-based distribution company and will put all my efforts there again."

Ms. Wood notes: "When this all went down, the last thing I wanted was to be associated with anything against Texas or the Texan people. My argument is against the language in the provisions [which bars portraying "Texas or Texans in a negative fashion" in any project seeking state production incentives]. In my opinion, this is blatant censorship, and ‘the state’ of Texas needs to take a step into this generation. The picture is going to be made with or without Texas, with another state reaping the benefits, most likely Louisiana (again). It was unfortunate that [Texas Film Commissioner] Bob Hudgins has been attacked in all of this. He made the mistake of taking the blame and becoming the state’s scapegoat by stating it was his decision. If you know Bob, you know he wouldn’t deny the Texas people the benefits. I firmly believe there was pressure from above."

-- Si Dunn

Texas Movie Incentives = Texas Movie Censorship

"We can tell the story, 'The Scoundrels of Texas.' We have scoundrels. As long as we portray our scoundrels accurately, then those projects, you know, will be able to be included in the program," Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins recently told News 8 Austin.

Hudgins was responding to questions about his recent decision to deny state assistance to Entertainment 7's movie project Waco, on the grounds that events depicted in the script did not accurately portray what the Branch Davidians and others said happened during the violent 1993 standoff near Waco that left more than 80 people dead.

Of course, who can judge what is "accurate" and what is not? One hundred people watching one incident will see it one hundred different ways and can create one hundred totally different accounts of what they just witnessed.

Movies -- unless they are billed as documentaries -- are fiction, and in fiction, anything goes. Nothing is "real."

As Austin actor and writer Curtis Wayne has pointed out: "Did The Sopranos paint New Jersey in a good light? Do you think NJ would vote 'yes' on incentives to have it shot there, knowing what they know now? Of course they would. This is silliness."

The provision invoked by Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins goes beyond "silliness," however. State legislators have imposed outright censorship conditions that deny incentives to moving image projects which portray "Texas or Texans in a negative fashion."

Texas has long prided itself on being big, bold, strong and independent. But in this ridiculous case, it is attempting to protect itself in the same manner that a small-town Chamber of Commerce might try to guard the business image of its population-10,000 burg.

I repeat, movies are fiction, and in fiction, anything goes -- including "factual" inaccuracies and Texas buffoons and crooks. Was the TV show Dallas an accurate description of Big D, Texas and Texas oil tycoons? Yee-haaa! That's a big NO, cowboy. Has the fact that Dallas stayed on the air for 13 years, until 1991, somehow stopped or hurt Dallas-related tourism? No, people still show up from all over the world eager to see Southfork Ranch and other memorabilia of the series.

Texas definitely has not been hurt by this bald-faced bit of fiction. Indeed, the state has made a ton of money from it and equally inaccurate shows such as Walker, Texas Ranger. And Texas could keep making tons of money from Texas movies and TV shows, even those that criticize the state and mock the attitudes and mannerisms of the citizenry. We can be embarrassed all the way to the bank.

The Waco movie project had an estimated budget of $30 million, much of which would have been spent in Texas. The production company also wanted to shoot another movie in the state. Now, according to Entertainment 7's Emilio Ferrari, his company will "never ever" shoot a movie in Texas.

Quite a few Texans, some of them currently unemployed, were counting on those movie jobs, and now they won't be working. The production company also will not be buying food and supplies and renting equipment in Texas. This is a much bigger embarrassment than enduring 120 minutes of celluloid fiction showing federal agencies and Waco's Branch Davidians ending up in a violent shootout, standoff and deadly fire.

If the Texas Legislature has any sense at all (and, quite often, that is strongly questioned by Texas voters), the "in a negative fashion" clause should be stripped out of the Texas moving image incentives statutes just as soon as possible.

-- Si Dunn

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The Acting Spark

By Si Dunn

Actors arrive at the craft and art of acting from many different directions.

This point was well illustrated during the “Acting for Dollars” panel discussion at the 1st Lone Star International Film Festival, Nov. 9, 2007, in Fort Worth, Texas.

For more than 25 years, Xander Berkeley (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0075359/) has been playing mainly character roles in movies and television, and he typically is cast as “the bad guy.” Indeed, one of his best-known roles is Gibbs, the evil Secret Service agent who betrays the President (Harrison Ford) in Air Force One. Berkeley isn’t exactly sure when his acting spark started during childhood. “But I didn’t want toys when I was little. I only wanted costumes,” he told the panel’s audience. “I also got interested in accents.” Later, he became adept as a makeup artist, as well, a talent he recently displayed while playing the character George Mason on the hit TV show, “24.”

Xander Berkeley’s wife, Sarah Clarke (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1020124/), was an architectural photographer before she became an actor, with recent roles that include the turncoat government agent Nina Myers on “24.” “I just thought actors were big hams,” she told the panel audience. “But later, I took an acting class in Italy, in Italian.” The challenges of that experience kindled a deeper interest that led her onto the stage, then into movies and television. “The universe kind of guides you, but you need to pay attention,” she said.

Matthew Steven Tompkins (Missionary Man, Living & Dying, Killing Down) (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0867004/) has had a wide range of roles in a career stretching more than 15 years. “My father was an actor who never got to act,” Tompkins told the audience. The elder Tompkins’ family wouldn’t let him perform. But he never lost his enthusiasm for acting and actors, and his “performances” while watching others perform ultimately gave young Matthew an excellent role model for his own acting career. “My father would pull up a chair to watch Peter Sellers and The Pink Panther, and I would pull up a chair to watch my father,” Tompkins explained.

Julio Cedillo (The Mist, Killing Down, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0147814/) also has been working as an actor for more than 15 years. “I came here from Mexico at age four. I learned to speak English when I was six, sitting in front of the TV,” he explained. “I started mimicking the people who were on TV, while my mother made tortillas. And I was hooked.”

Oliver Tull (Killing Down, Equilateral, Saving Jessica Lynch) (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0876358/) got his first acting role in 1982 “to get out of work” while he was in the Army. “Being on a sports team got us out of work. Then there was a play on the base. I auditioned and got picked.” He discovered then that he also had an in innate love of story.

The acting career of the panel’s moderator, David Newsom (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0628392/), spans almost 20 years. He said he started out wanting “to play a bunch of great roles.” But the New York theater and movie business was crowded and fiercely competitive. “My father said, ‘Why don’t you move to a smaller market?’” Newsom took the advice. While building sets for the Catskill Actors Theater, he was given two lines to speak as a waiter in “Death of a Salesman.” Later, he went to Los Angeles, worked odd jobs, and eventually landed roles in TV shows, including “China Beach” and “Quantum Leap.” After parts in many other shows, Newsom recently has been pursuing other career directions, including producing the award-winning short film, Mother. As an actor, he pointed out, “your destiny is out of your own hands. People in other rooms make decisions about the next six months of your life. I want to be able to tell my own stories in my own ways.”

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Mumblecore: Are You Ready to…Crumble?

By Si Dunn

It’s time for senior moviemakers to step up and show the mumblecore movement how to stop muttering into its angst and actually say something worth hearing.

Okay, okay, so I’m being sarcastic about this surging outbreak of ultra-low-budget movies featuring twentysomethings talking, talking, talking about relationships and sex and then about sex and relationships, while, like, you know, not quite finishing their sentences. Like.

We seniors could call our new movie movement grumblecore, because many of us have plenty to complain about: multi-decade marriages gone south; jobs moved overseas; new careers we can’t compete for, nor even comprehend; retirement savings that won’t last one “golden year”; no long-term care insurance; family members scattered across the nation and universe; and guaranteed short-term futures as a varsity players in shuffleboard hell.

We also could call our movement stumblecore. We have, after all, managed somehow to stumble a long way through life, figuratively and literally. Now we may be having real balance problems when we walk or when we try to put two thoughts together as we we talk.

We could call our movement crumblecore, as well. Hey, you think you’ve got angst, mumbledude? Try riffing about sex and relationship woes when you don’t have your false teeth pasted firmly in your mouth, when every joint in your body aches, and when your impotence medicine suddenly is making everything and everybody look blue. Likewise, try getting on with your life’s next great chapter knowing that it’s, like, death, and it really is, like, just ahead.

Will it be a cardiac roadside bomb? A sniper attack by the Big C? A no-joke stroke? Or just one of a million other sanguinary surprises?

Mumble, mumble, mumble; mutter, mutter, mutter; grumble, stumble, crumble....

Cut! That’s definitely a wrap!

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