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Posts in category "Notes from the Director"

How Much Is Your Time Worth?

It’s fair to say that everyone who works wants to get paid. In times like these, as our economy staggers out of the gray uncertainty of recession we probably spend a lot time thinking about money and how much of it we should be getting. How much in wages we earn for our time and... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
April 27, 2012 at 5:04 pm
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The Chicago "Atmosphere"

The Chicago "Atmosphere"
“Chicago has great clouds.” I was speaking to a friend on the phone a few days ago and we were talking about the differences between California and Chicago. “There’s so much sunlight here,” was my comment that precipitated the converstion. “It’s always sunny. It takes some getting used to.” This isn’t strictly true, of course... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
April 25, 2012 at 1:25 pm
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Keeping Women Out of Film

Keeping Women Out of Film
Last week I volunteered to help out at the Los Angeles Women’s Film Festival. For the past two years this was a festival at which we screened our films “The Visionary” and “Mattress World”. To be on the other side of the other side of the proverbial velvet rope was eye-opening about some of the... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
April 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm
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Who Cares About Independent Film Anyway?

<Start irony> Thanks Apple. And Canon. And Sony. And all of you- you know who you are. You’re the ones who made it just SO easy for everyone to become a filmmaker these days and now we’re paying the price. The Facebook messages, the endless event invitations, the please-like-this-project-cuz-I’m-working-on-it-and-we’re-friends-right? pleas. Oh yeah, and the constant... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
March 23, 2012 at 9:30 am
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3 Reasons Chicago Makes Better Films Than Hollywood

Hollywood has made some pretty darn good films in its time, and it makes a lot of them. (Movies, that is, not necessarily good ones.) But Chicago has turned out some pretty good films too: Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller, Dark Knight… And considering the proportion of Good films made in Chicago to the total number of... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
January 13, 2012 at 4:52 pm
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Looking Back, Looking Forward

We hope this letter finds you in good spirits as we prepare to celebrate the New Year! As much as we look forward to a little holiday rest and relaxation we are busier than ever here at Blue Damen Pictures and as we look forward to a bright New Year we wanted to take a... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
December 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm
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Wrapping Up The Holidays

It’s that time of the year again: the time when temperatures run low and anxiety runs high. Some people are super organized about the holidays. These are the people who buy their gifts months in advance and have them lovingly wrapped and stowed away in closets and basements until the Big Day. These are the... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
December 16, 2011 at 7:17 pm
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Are American Audiences Getting Dumber?

Mention the film “Jack and Jill” in the same sentence as, say, “Melancholia” and your conversation will inevitably end with someone shaking their head and saying: “I just don’t get how movies can make so much money when they just keep getting dumber and dumber” to which someone will reply: “That’s what sells- Americans are... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
December 9, 2011 at 4:06 pm
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Called to the Cinema

  I happened across this article on a fellow filmmaker’s Facebook page today: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2011/10/the-vocation-of-the-storyteller/. Though I haven’t seen the film described in the article, The Catechism Cataclysm, it did touch on a topic that I’ve been giving a lot of thought to lately, namely, the sense of purpose that drives otherwise reasonable individuals to create... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
November 4, 2011 at 9:08 am
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This Wasn't What I Had In Mind When I Said I Wanted to Be a Groundbreaking Filmmaker, But OK

I was asked to say a few words last week at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new ArtSpace building that is going up in Elgin. ArtSpace, in case you haven’t heard of it, is an organization out of Minnesota that builds affordable live-work lofts for artists and their families. Now that is an organization that... Read more »
By Gwydhar,
October 25, 2011 at 5:00 pm
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