Hue's Blog

All Movie Sets Feel The Same

If you've ever been on a movie set while they are shooting, it's thrilling.  Lots of yelling beforehand, lights, trucks, bullhorns, tension.  It is exciting to make something, and that excitement is palpable.

Notice, I didn't say being on a "good movie" set is exciting. Because on a movie set, you have no idea if the film will be good or bad.  Think of the worst movie you've seen recently - I guarantee that while the film was shooting, people felt like they were making Oscar-worthy material.  Creation is such a rush that it overwhelms other senses and makes you high.  And when you're high, everything is awesome.

Business projects are like movies.  While you are pushing to launch, or driving to close the deal, or re-branding your website - while it's happening it feels amazing.  You can even start to believe that because it feels so good, the results will be good.  People will love the new site design and flock to your business in record numbers.  The client will give you a standing ovation after your sales pitch.

But there are bad movies.  And there are failed redesigns.  And lord knows there are bad sales pitches.  If you can't trust the feeling of doing, what can you trust?  In film they say it's the script.  If the script is good and you stick to the spirit of the script, the film will be good.  Business doesn't always have a script, but I think it does have a goal, or a clear vision.  If you're launching your website and your goal is to delight customers, are you sticking to that goal at all costs?  If you are pitching a client on a new service, have you internalized the client's needs so that you understand them better than the client?

All new ventures start with an idea.  That idea is the real creation - the something new.  Keeping that initial spark or vision at the forefront of all decisions, big or small...I think that's the best guarantee that the result will be as good as the creation process feels.

Dear Turntable.fm

Dear Turntable.fm,

Hi.  You should charge me for being "anti-social."  For a monthly fee, let me note songs I like and let me listen to them on my own, through an iPhone app.  Make me pay to create a channel of 1, i.e. me.  If I want to take from the common good (and I do) charge me for it.

I would pay to be selfish.  And you should let me.

XO, Hue

Existential Sushi

Bond Street Sushi, 8:30 pm.

I put a bite in my mouth, and I realize with searing clarity...

That I am eating food beyond luxury.

That I am overly full, but will forge ahead.

That I am so far from the basic caloric requirements needed to sustain myself.

That this, this bite of sushi, garnished with edible gold leaf, represents excess in the sweetest, most offensive sense.

That John D. Rockefeller, the first American billionaire, never tasted the combination of flavors I am tasting.

It is so inappropriate that I am eating a living wage in every bite.

My conscience joins my stomach in signaling to my brain to stop.

And yet I do not.

Of course I do not.

And this is all before the dessert course.

Damn, that was good.

I Hear The Dead

I never liked The Grateful Dead.  I tried.  At my overly-resourced boarding school, the upside of following the Dead was substantial.  Social currency, sanctioned rebellion...dare I say, possibly getting laid?  And yet I could not.  I felt it was a case of the Emperor's New Clothes, 100%.

I just turned 40.  I have two kids.  I am traveling for work close to 75% now, and it's crushing.  My wife is wrestling with both parts of her "working mom" title.  We barely have time for a quiet meal together.

Last night, sandwiched between a weekend spent working and another week separated by Continental Airlines, we had a sushi date.  And then, pushing our luck and our baby-sitter's patience, we went for frozen yogurt.

Uncle John's Band, off of the "Workingman's Dead" Grateful Dead album, played over the yogurt shop's speakers.  It was so peaceful, so beautiful.  I started swaying, slightly, just wanting to go along with the soothing river, happy to go wherever the song took me.

My wife, a long-time Dead fan, says everyone has their moment when The Grateful Dead speaks to them.  Last night I heard it, and somehow I knew everything was going to be okay.

A Harry Potter Equation

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 = Dune minus Awesome

Watching "The Social Network" with no sound

Things I learned from David Fincher while watching "The Social Network" with no sound:

1. Open the shot on something specific if you can.

2. Let emotional reactions land.

3. Keep it moving.

4. If you have to choose between the film's subject and the frame's subject, keep attention on the former (through camera moves or focus pulls.)

5. Don't neglect inserts and detail shots, even if you can understand what's happening without them.

Tron, deconstructed

I saw Tron twice, IMAX 3D, stadium seating. Here's what I saw mashup-wise.

First time through:
Avatar, Matrix, Gladiator, Star Wars, The Big Lebowski, Predator, Dune

Second time through:
Grease, High Noon, the "Take On Me" video, more Matrix, A.I., Snake Eyes from the original G.I. Joe comics, The Running Man, Starman (didn't see that coming, did you?)

The Gilt Story

There's an expression in film - the audience is either crying or talking.  Which means that if you (the filmmakers) move them emotionally, all reason and analysis go out the window.  If you fail to move them, then the rule book comes out with an audit of all the ways you failed.

Imagine four years ago if someone said "okay, we're going to have another auction site, and we'll sell clothes, but maybe vacation packages too, who knows, maybe even cars?"  In 2006 we needed another auction site like we needed a hole in the head.

Then Gilt comes along, gets it's story straight and makes the audience cry.

Confusion 2.0

In 1996 I wrote on my web page about how I felt buffetted by conflicting forces in my life.  I couldn’t tell what the future held and I was confused.  What’s changed in 14 years?  Nothing, except now I'm writing about my confusion on a blog.

A great David O. Russell interview

That’s the most beautiful thing that I like about boxing: You can take a punch. The biggest thing about taking a punch is, your ego reacts and there’s no better spiritual lesson than trying to not pay attention to your ego’s reaction. That’s what takes people out of the fight half the time. They get hit and half the reaction is, your ego is saying, “I cannot believe that person just lit me up, how humiliating.”...That’s why I love Bill Clinton. I just love people who can take a punch and pick themselves up and come back...I had a few humbling years, and those years made me a better filmmaker. I write better now, and I see better now cinematically.

The full interview (here) is definitely worth the read.