Shadow and Act

I'm sure, by now, most of you've have read/heard about the predictions for the Stateside movie industry made by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (that the business, as it is, will implode, in short), which seem to have shaken the internet at its core, given how much the original piece by The Hollywood Reporter has traveled since it was published last night (I shared it on the S&A Facebook and Twitter pages soon after, and it's been shared several dozen times since them).A common reaction to the words of these 2 industry titans was something like: "If they are having to fight to get their films from script to screen (Lincoln and Red Tails), and are as gloomy about the industry's future as they appear to be, then what does that mean for the rest of us...?"The video footage of that conversation - a panel discussion at University of Southern California's School for Cinematic Arts, where they are board members - was moderated by CNBC's Julia Boorstin, and has now surfaced online, and is embedded below for you to watch.In brief, both filmmakers see changes coming in the way movies are made, distributed and watched, as well as significant disruptions to the overall business itself, with Spielberg comparing what's happening in the industry now, to what the economy was like in 2008 - hitting a bottom, poised to eventually start to rise up again.

Today in history, June 10th, 2004... singer and pianist Ray Charles died of liver disease in his Beverly Hills home at age 73.

In April of 2012 I spoke with Writer/Director Ryan Coogler via Skype to Production Design his first feature “Fruitvale Station” that would be filming in the Bay Area in the summer. I was so impressed with Ryan’s vision for this film and his infectious beautiful soul and spirit, before we were done talking I told him, “I want to work on this project.” A few days before we spoke, after I read the script, I began to research the Bay Area, specifically where Oscar Grant grew up. I looked at everything having to do with Oscar, from the cell phone footage of the night Oscar was killed at the Fruitvale BART, the protests that took place after the verdict was announced, to the very beautiful tributes made by his friends, family and community. Needless to say I was floored and moved beyond words. The first step I took was to pull colors from the environments that surrounded the life and death of Oscar. The colors came from murals of Oscar, and the colors you would see every day in Oakland and in the BART stations, specifically the Fruitvale and South Hayward BART stations. As I began to compile these colors, pictures, ideas, looks for the locations in the script, I pinned them on my wall creating a mosaic of the feelings I had from reading the script. It was important for me to do this so Ryan would have an idea of where my thoughts were when we spoke over Skype. I literally held up my computer so he could see the wall *insert smiley face* I don’t think he was expecting that, but it gave us a board from which to jump from. Soon after we spoke I got a call back from Ryan and he asked me to join the project. And I headed to Oakland to take this journey with a fantastic group of filmmakers.