It's taking shape and I have a plan. Want to be a part of it. Go to the website.
After watching Moon Knight, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit one of my favorite movies by Oscar Issac and some of my favorite filmmakers the Coen brothers. The movie is called Inside Llewyn Davis and it tells the story of a folk singer who is dealing with the death of his partner in a fairly successful duo, and trying to strike out on his own while maintaining his authenticity. His music was based on the music of David Van Ronk which was a contemporary of Bob Dylan, but he represents an everyman living in the world created in the Mayor of MacDougal Street.
Oscar Issac plays Llewyn Davis, a down on his luck folk singer who is clinging ot whatever success he had from his previous duo. His partner died which left him alone to continue on without him. He's searching for success but also trying to maintain his authenticity. In the meantime, he's sleeping on couches and dealing with personal issues. Llewyn had a girlfriend but he messed it up and she moved to another man. He gets an opportunity to play a session with the boyfriend.
The movie tells the story of an album through the life of the singer and his quest to take the right path to success without ever really knowing what that success is. His agent is not really promoting him very much. The agents in Chicago don't think that his music is very profitable. He's stuck between doing the work that he wants to do and making something commercial that people will buy. Something that I think we artists at one time or another all need to reckon with.
The movie tells the tragedy of the working mans singer. It tells the story of a catalog artist who is destined to be the mid range catalog artist.
Llewyn Davis masterfully shows what the struggling artist goes through. It's the journey of a struggling artist who is constantly making the wrong decision. Llewyn's self-sabotaging journey through his post-duo career shows his despair and his inability to compromise and create a new start for himself.
Watching Inside Llewyn Davis again at this stage in my life is a completely different matter. I'm at a point where my career is not really going anywhere as an actor. I still have the skills and the knowledge, but I'm not putting in the time or the energy in the art of it. I'm lacking focus, but then am I missing opportunity. Recently, the Tulsa King is filming in the area and I was thinking about what it would be to be in that or at least be an extra in the background. Used to have film guys asking me to be in their films all the time. Not so much anymore. Don't really know whether or not I will be doing it anymore. I go back and forth a lot of what is next. We'll see.
Billy Bob Thornton was an actor who was frustrated with the film industry. And as most actors do, they make the film that they want to star in. From this frustration, he started to create the character of Karl. He worked the character into a one man show, Swine Before Pearls. After performing this one man show, he raised money to make a short film called Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade.
Thornton got a role on the CBS Sitcom Hearts Afire with John Ritter. He made the finishing touches on the Oscar Winning script while sitting at this mother's dining table. While taking this movie and shopping it around Hollywood. His feature link film version "Sling Blade" was filmed in 24 days in Benton, Arkansas and it brought in $24 Million dollars after having a $1 million dollar budget. The distribution rights were sold for another $10 million.
This film went from MONOLOGUE to ONE MAN SHOW to SHORT FILM to FULL LENGTH FILM and won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.
TikTok is the latest craze for people who make videos. Everyone's camera is getting more and more advanced and people are sharing their creativity in many different ways. From dance, to tips, to advice, to voice lessons, TikTok is your new short form video powerhouse where you can instantly create content. And people are creating more content than ever before. The old saying goes, "A million monkeys with a million typewriters can eventually type the works of William Shakespeare" and that theory is being put to the test with the new short form video creators.
TikTok pays it's creators. It's called The Creator Fund. It actually pays you for making great content, and you don't know what is going to blow up, so might as well create for an audience that you love. Who is your audience and what are you trying to tell them. What would you say to the person who could change your life if you have 15 seconds to do it? Which one of these people are going to send the elevator back up and change your world.
Here are just some of the models that could be used:
An actor who wants to get a role in a movie could record monologues daily and have those monologues get audience feedback to work on his cold reading and interpretation skills. He could follow casting agents and get his face out there in hopes of getting an audition for a role in a film. The more followers he builds the more marketable he is to the general public.
A filmmaker gets film ideas and makes a 15 second version on TikTok. The idea that sticks can use the sling blade model and go from 15 second idea to short film and that short film can be shopped to make a feature film.
A musician can write a lyric with music that he might use in a song later. Pose a question to the audience and get ideas for a song. Build the song into an album and have a readily available audience to buy his music.
There are a million versions of this, but the mad libs version of this would be:
The (Creative Type) who wants (Goal) can do (Small thing) to (Medium Thing) so that he can get (Ideal Goal)
Just some thoughts, but I would say if you're not making content, no one knows you exist and if you can take steps to change that, it's a great way to build your brand and achieve your dreams.
Will Smith got upset at Chris Rock for telling a joke about his wife and slapped him in the face. If this was a normal altercation, it might be a few days long. This happened at the Oscars. My initial reaction was, "Did I just see what I thought I just saw?" And then, I looked on the net. Literally a few seconds later, writers had already written a story that was a basic explanation of what happened. Later that night, Will Smith accepted his Oscar crying about his performance at the Oscars. So the next day, there were a billion videos about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock for a joke.
What can we learn from this...
We are all familiar with violence and we're pretty much used to it. We see people smash into other people in football. We see people get shot in public schools. Our news is full of crimes of violence and mayhem that happen in our city. We are a violent society.
The writer Anthony Burgess said it plainly.
A while back, I wrote a television pilot that I never released. Partially because I had plans on filming it myself and putting it out there. Well, fast forward a few years and I have a few irons in the fire, so here's Lucky's Gamble. I wrote this after watching a ton of Breaking Bad and always being a fan of heist films. Oceans 11 being the most famous and many others. This teleplay follows the actions of four friends who are gamblers in Oklahoma city but are struggling through the daily slings and arrows of life. They decided that the only way that they are going to get ahead is planning a heist on the Indian Gambling casinos that are in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This is a labor of love for me and it's also something that I've written that I'm very proud of. It's available for filming, purchase, stageplays. Anything that you would like to do with it. I would appreciate if you do a performance or something of it, throw me a bone. But then again, let me know you're current situation, and I'm willing to work with you. I know what it's like to struggle. Check it out here:
I worked for the Tulsa Stagehands Union when Foo Fighters toured with Guns and Roses. It was like a circus to see Dave Grohl and Axel Rose walking around. As a stagehand, there are certain unwritten rules to not do, talk to the talent being a HUGE one. We are waiting in the wings and the Foo Fighters just killed it. As they are walking off, the idiot next to me yelled "Great show, Taylor! YOU ROCK" to which he graciously raised his hand and waved as he walked to his dressing room. We all quickly turn around and told him to be quiet and did our laboring as stage hands getting the Foo Fighters to the next city.
It's also hard to hear and find out all of the things that I never knew about Taylor Hawkins. It seriously reminds me of the death of a good friend called Tommy Layon. He did all of this cool stuff, but I found it out after he died. I was surprised to learn about Taylor Hawkins that he had three kids, that he played for Alanis Morrisette on the Jagged Little Pill tour and that he had side gigs other than the Foo Fighters. I was also surprised to just become a lot more aware of how much amazing stuff he did on the Foo Fighters records. And how much, just everyone, in Rock n Roll music just loved the crap out of him. Tom Morello and Joan Jett gave great tributes.
Foo Fighters have gotten me through a lot. They, in my opinion, have been the flag bearers for rock music. They're whole album is scattered across my "Work Song Playlist" which is a playlist of rock songs I use to get through my day. Your life was a great show, Taylor. And your rocked it, and may I forever be that idiot in the hall giving you praise for all that you have give us. Damn. Hug a Foo Fighter fan. We are not okay today.
"Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want and what you...