John August

John

Student Films Across America

Film Industry, Los Angeles, News

Tonight, I attended the LA screenings of [Student Films Across America](http://www.studentfilmsacrossamerica.com/), a traveling film festival that highlights great shorts made by film students nationwide. I was one of the judges this year — months ago, I watched a bunch of screeners. So it was nice to see the final results.

And here’s where I beg forgiveness. After arriving late, waving hello, and watching Kathy Huang’s keenly observed doc Miss Chinatown, U.S.A., I got sucked into a Hollywood vortex of lawyer/agent/studio phone calls, which forced me into the hallway, and ultimately out the door. So I never got to shake hands and congratulate the filmmakers. I’m doing that now.

Sorry. Congratulations. And the reason for my absence will hopefully become clear soon. (It has nothing to do with The Nines, for a change.)

Permitted filmmaking

Film Industry, Rant, Rights and Copyright, Sundance

Writer/director [James Ponsoldt](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1242054/), one of the fellows at this summer’s Sundance Filmmakers Lab, emailed me some information about new regulations on filming in New York City’s five boroughs. Under the proposed rules ([.pdf](http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/nyc_photo_permits_proposed_rules_052507.pdf)), a city permit would be needed for:

* Two people with any camera, shooting in a public location (defined as any area within 100 feet of where filming begins) for a half hour or longer, even if the camera is hand-held, including set up and breakdown.

* Five people with one tripod, shooting in a public location for over 10 minutes, including set up and breakdown.

I have no doubt that the rules are well-intentioned. Anyone who’s lived in New York or Los Angeles has dealt with the inconvenience of film crews — that’s why there’s a permit process. But there’s a difference between a true film shoot, with its trucks and dollies and light stands, and two guys with a videocamera.

Would these rules really get enforced? It’s hard to say. But even rarely-used laws are a Bad Thing if they criminalize free expression. Videotaping a protest march could be deemed illegal under these rules.

Thanks to sites like YouTube, video has become the new generation’s media of choice. It’s their printing press, their pamphlet, their church-door-upon-which-to-nail-theses. Placing undue restrictions on video creation undermines the spirit of the First Amendment. The Mayor’s office needs to find a way to control the burden of filming (trucks, traffic, noise) without restricting expression.

[Picture New York](http://www.pictureny.org/) has more information about the proposed rules, including a petition.

As for Los Angeles (and other cities), I can’t say exactly what the current rules are. At USC, we had to get LA film permits for our student films. That was a university policy, and made sense given their concerns about liability and guild relations. (We were able to use SAG actors under a waiver.)

This was before the age of tiny, ubiquitous videocameras. You can now shoot a film without anyone realizing you’re shooting a film. If it’s you and a buddy with a tiny camera, should you really have to register with a governmental agency? I say no. And I hope that New York’s proposed rules wouldn’t make that mandatory.

On Parade

Parade, Rant

For a short time, I was running a bit where I would re-answer questions sent to Walter Scott’s Personality Parade™, one of the most odiously irrelevant and self-congratulatory bits of cultural fluff in the lint screen we call popular culture. While I was inspired to write it out of true anger at its existence, the column and my parody were mostly harmless wastes of time.

Then, one week, I decided to do an entire Q & A defending and exalting Britney Spears. Just because. Keep in mind, this was when Britney was a young mother of two, married to a sleazeball wannabe. (It’s hard to remember that once upon a time, a few months ago, we thought she was the stable one.) The piece was fairly toothless, but moderately funny, as I hoped most of those columns were.

But before I could post it, Britney went absolutely bonkers. And what I’d written suddenly felt like kicking a (recently-shaved-bald) puppy. So I junked it, along with the feature.

I’m reminded about this because of a story in today’s Variety: [“Parade of confusion after Lohan arrest”](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117969283.html?categoryid=18&cs=1). As you’re no doubt sick of hearing, Lindsay Lohan was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of drunken driving, but this coming Sunday’s issue of Parade tells a different story…

After extending her stay at luxury rehab facility Promises, Lindsay Lohan “seems committed to finally getting clean.”

So reports Parade magazine in this week’s edition of Walter Scott’s Personality Parade, the purveyor of feel-good celebrity news that, regrettably in this case, has a four-week lead time from when an item is written until it is published.

Excuse me if I mis-read — it takes __four weeks__ to come up with the bullshit you call Personality Parade? If Walter Scott were a real person, he’d be the laziest hack on the planet. Says a Parade spokesman:

“We’ll address this on the Parade.com website so we’ll have something that’s much more current,” the spokesman said. “This is an example of how difficult substance abuse can be, and we wish her the very best on her road to recovery.”

I wish nothing but plague and pestilence upon you, anonymous spokesman.

Lohan’s problems are her own. She’s seriously fucked up her career. But don’t blame her for messing up your faux-news column.

You work for a sham newspaper inserted inside actual newspapers. I can already predict your editorial memo going out on Monday: “From now on, we need to make sure anything the publicists feed us will still feel somewhat true four weeks from now. Concentrate on Disney stars and country singers.”

I’m urging the Los Angeles Times to drop Parade this week. You can, too. [Here’s the link.](http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-other-cf2,0,897028.customform?coll=la-navigation&sId=Other%20Questions)

Better yet, if your local paper includes Parade, let them know.

Is it too late to pull it out of the Sunday issue? They’ll say so. But it’s not too late to respond editorially, answering the question of why a newspaper would run a story they already know is inaccurate, and continue to support the inane ramblings of a publicist mouthpiece. I gave up on Parade. So should they.

And if you’re feeling so inclined, feel free to [Digg this](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjohnaugust.com%2Farchives%2F2007%2Fon-parade&title=On+Parade).

Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician

Big Fish, Books, Projects

bookDaniel Wallace, the dashing and talented writer who wrote Big Fish (the novel), has a brand new book in stores for your purchasing pleasure: [Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician](http://astore.amazon.com/johnaugustcom-20/detail/038552109X/103-6872397-4470203). I read it a bazillion years ago — books take a surprisingly long time to go from manuscript to shelf — so I’ll let the official blurb handle the one-line summary:

From the author of Big Fish comes this haunting, tender story that weaves a tragic secret, a mysterious meeting with the Devil, and a family of charming circus freaks recounting the extraordinary adventures of their friend Henry Walker, the Negro Magician.

Do you like tales of the South, the circus, and mysterious goings-on? Presumably, if you liked Big Fish. It’s a very different story, told from multiple viewpoints, and certainly worthy of the great reviews it’s been pulling in.

Daniel’s touring, so it’s worth checking when he’ll be at a store near you ((5/3/2011 Update: Tour link inactive)). While you’re at it, explore the rest of [his site](http://danielwallace.org).