The Doorway Newsletter #4 - New Beginnings
The following newsletter was sent to The Doorway email list today:
Dear Friends, Family, Mentors, and Colleagues,
I’m sitting in a waiting room at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, and Drake, my youngest nephew, is moments away from making his way into our world. Nearly two years ago, I returned to the Bay Area to unite my primary objectives: business, education, art and family. Within a week of returning, on May 22, I sat in the very same waiting room anticipating the birth of my Brother’s son, Luke. That summer, I returned to school at Las Posistas College and discovered a profound respect for general education. Now, it is my Sister’s turn; her son will be with us shortly, and I’m summing up my education at Las Positas College with a presentation of my latest project, a cinematic piece, The Doorway… it truly is full circle.
With exception to screening formalities and minuscule touch-ups, the movie is complete. Most importantly, a time and place embodying the direction of a sincere vision was captured.
The presentation will showcase my journey, from the streets to the screen, to the premier of The Doorway. I will share a selection of pieces embodying my development in cinema, ranging from the epitome of independent yet poetic amateur, showcasing Kiss, to the discovery of new ways for scene development and acquisition, as exemplified in New World.
In addition, there will be two guest speakers. A cinematic hero of mine, Rob Nilsson, will share words on art and cinema, and before the premier of The Doorway, Mr. Willis will present “The Doorway,” the original parable, as he did nearly two years before, when I began my education at Las Positas College.
…just received word, 11:34 AM, Drake Wise is here!
Drake was due June 17th. I would like to think he desired to be here before the premier, and even though Drake will likely not attend the screening, his entrance into this world is in the spirit of the movie.
June 5th at 7:30 PM, mark your calendars to celebrate new entrances, beginnings, and growth.
Hope to see you there!
Sincerely,
Joel
P.S. I was interviewed by Garrett Roads from Las Positas College radio. You may listen to the interview on the project home page, The Doorway radio interview.
LPC Radio Interview
Last week, one June 20th, Garrett Roads interviewed me for a Las Positas College (LPC) radio broadcast. The interview took place at Garrett’s home; a very unique living space located in a barn. Garrett guided me along and made it easy to speak about The Doorway and my past experiences in cinema. You may listen to the radio interview here, The Doorway Radio Interview.
A couple of notes, The Doorway presentation has evolved since the interview. Rather then showing how one may live out of a car to make movies, I will loosely intertwine how and where I lived with the progression of my experimentation in scene development. In addition, I have pulled Pardoned form the screening program; however, I will likely include the movie in the presentation notes after the screening.
A San Francisco Renaissance
I experienced a renaissance in art. I spent the last week in San Francisco. The purpose was to collaborate with Nero on the sound; however, our collaboration far exceeded the sound alone. We spoke on psychology, relationships, and man’s place in a technological and industrial influenced ecosystem.
While Nero was at work, I explored the city on public transportation. Jumping between trains and buses, bouncing from café to café, I experienced a very dynamic range of populated neighborhoods – from bearded hipsters in sweaters to clean shaved yuppies with pristinely pressed dress shirts to Hispanics wearing puffy jackets with infamous whale tale creeping from their pants. At the cafés I edited the movie and prepared the soundtrack. At night, Nero and I set sail into the city night life, from dive bars to pulsating clubs; with Manhattans in hand, we observed people from the inside and out, i.e., interacting and watching. Most importantly, we delved deep into the subject matter of the movie, The Doorway.
Each morning, I set out on a run to reflect. One morning I ran to sunset beach, and my open stride graced the west coast sand for the first time in nearly 6 years; the air was clean, and the chill was incomparable to any other. Another morning, I stepped outside into a drizzle of fog; the streets were coated with a light glistening drape of coolness. I thought, I will get wet if I run, and I ran. I returned soaked in the crisp fresh rise of the city.
I returned to the East Bay on Sunday morning, after staying up all day Saturday. I want to make it clear, each day wasn’t a walk in the park. I was challenged daily by my tasks and conversations with Nero, and each challenge made the revelations more beautiful. Saturday was one of the most difficult days, for I was stuck without a solution to one of the most important scenes. Oddly enough, Nero and I went out on Saturday for an absolutely amazing night; it lasted till 5 AM Sunday morning. I dropped Nero off and headed back to the East Bay; troubled by the difficult scene, I psychologically crashed hard after an absolutely amazing, and contrasting, night. When I returned to my room in the East Bay, I immediately passed out under the dark remnants of an incomplete scene. When I awoke, I had a vision, a possible solution to the problem, and it worked.
Now, I am preparing for the presentation.
It is worth noting, during this miniature renaissance, Nero had an epiphany for a song to complete his album. Perhaps I will share more later. The song will likely be shared at the presentation too.
It is also worth noting, I heard something on NPR about identities and sharing aspects of life on the internet. This really had me questioning this project journal and my online journal all together, for it is very personal; I’m considering the separation of this personal aspect of art from the public world. I will see this project journal through, but I may limit my online presence in the future.
Anyhow, below are pictures from the studio and soundtrack recording.
Picture of the tape delay machine used for the atmospheric movie soundtrack.
The hallway to Nero’s studio.
Nero on the phone after the studio recording.
Into the City
Today, I announced The Doorway to several more classes. As with last time, I tried different things for different classes. The range of response from audiences is always interesting. I had two really good and one off announcement. For the off one, the class seemed fairly distant or disconnected; they were attached to their computers, and I’m sure this didn’t help. Next time students have distraction before them, I will surely keep it short. I need to recognize these situations and immediately act/adjust accordingly. The other two classes were very responsive and a pleasure to present too; in fact, one presentation went for an entire hour. At the end of the day I met up with Garrett for a college radio interview, and the interview was very engaging and thorough. There may be a podcast of the interview, and if so, I will get the link.
Tomorrow, I have my last publicity announcement for a college editing class. I will then head out to San Francisco from Wed-Mon to edit and work on the movie soundtrack. I’m considering sleeping in my van in front of a friends house; I think this may bring a feeling of peace, considering the subject matter of the presentation. This is full circle for me, and the next week is very important.
Class Announcements - Livermore Posters
I announced the movie to Mr. Ross’s drama classes and went to Livermore’s downtown to post posters. Afterwards, later in the evening, I introduced the movie to Mr. Willis’s English-4 class.
I was surprised by Livermore’s downtown; there is so much potential for a very strong artistic community. There is a huge downtown arts theater. In addition, the local store owners are very friendly; they were generously willing to allow my posters in there store front windows. Maybe Livermore is the next big film community.
Announcing to Mr. Willis’s English class was an absolute pleasure. Its worth noting, Mr. Willis looks very different, he lost a substantial amount of weight! He is way more nimble and very confident. In addition, I feel very connected in his classroom. I miss hearing his interactive lectures, and I’m looking forward to his reading at the final presentation of The Doorway.
On other notes, I posted events on both Yahoo and Yelp. The links are as follows, but keep in mind, these will expire: on yelp events and on yahoo events. I believe these resources are more so for organizing event attendance, something I’m not to concerned about; however, I want to see how much attention they attract to the event.
The Doorway presentation also made it on to the Las Positas College homepage. I’m very happy and honored for this, so I took several stills of the front page add and article page for archival purposes. Here is the article highlighted on the homepage, located near the bottom:
Here is an image of the individual article:
Name Changed - Posters Posting
I spent the last several days posting posters on campus and at local cafés, note the pictures below. I also networked with the various media and art departments at Las Positas College and arranged to introduce the movie presentation for associated classes.
Tonight, I wrote out a base for the presentation; I will continue to develop this base. Earlier, I met with Dr. Manwell for feedback on some ideas, of which I’m very excited.
Importantly, Mr. Willis agreed to read the parable, The Doorway, at the presentation; I’m absolutely pleased and honored.
On another note, today, my name was legally changed from Orion Star to Joel Simone, see New Passages for the initial announcement.
Picture of the poster posted on campus:
Below is a picture of Ian Scott McGregor Jursco. Ian was in my first feature movie Entries to Freedom, shot in 1999. Ian was also in several plays at Las Positas College before having a very productive theatre career in the SF Bay Area. He now lives in New York and has worked in several features and some commercials. I passed by the poster by the little theater and snapped a photo.
Mythical - Humn 10 Final
Today I turned in my Humanities 10 final essay, and this included doing a short wrap up presentation for the class. The final assignment was to complete an interdisciplinary project analyzing and associating three pieces of art, i.e., a musical piece, a painting, and a poem. I chose to base my project on Automat, by Edward Hopper.
I worked the analysis and association of Automat to Mythical, a song I wrote in 2003. I uploaded the song to download.com at some point in 2004, and you can listen to the recording here, listen to Mythical. (I found an interesting typo at download.com, i.e., “to” instead of “too” in the bio; my new education is really working.)
I then associated the song and painting to “The One Thing,” a poem by Rob Nilsson from his published book of poetry, From a Refugee of Tristan Da Cunha.
I did a short informal presentation to the class of the concept behind my final essay. I also shared analysis on the painting, performed the song, and read the poem. I made sure to give a disclaimer on the performance and song; I don’t consider myself a performer or musician; if I were to do it again, I would likely play a recording of the song instead. Reading Rob’s poem was my favorite part of the presentation, for I really felt some of the lines when reading.
This concludes Humanities 10. I may return to make additional notes on the course, but for now I will focus on the presentation that really matters, The Doorway.
The Doorway Poster
Last week, I needed to smog check my van for this years vehicle registration, so I decided play with some ideas for the The Doorway movie poster while waiting. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted. I was thinking of a simple photo of Jordan, the main character, standing with his phone and a crumpled paper bag, similar to this project still but in higher resolution. However, when I was editing one of the phone scenes, I was very attracted to the overexposed imagery of Jordan walking into the light; there is potential for expansive interpretation. I decided to play with this image, and my inspiration carried through to the creation of the poster, pictured below. The posters and similar post cards are currently hitting the press, and I will receive them in the next week or so. Also, special thanks to Travis Musser for helping with typography.
It is worth noting, Brad at All Smogs in Dublin, was great. He fixed my van’s air conditioning by attaching a loose tube near the engine; not a billable repair, just a friendly and knowledgeable simple fix. Absolutely awesome! Prior too, air conditioning only came out of the feet vents. Now I can travel the summer in comfort… thanks Brad! I can’t remember the name of his business, but when I find out, I will post it.
Edit 05.06.08: My smog check was completed at All Smogs, all-smogs.com.
The Doorway Newsletter #3 - The Screening
The following newsletter was sent out today, May 1, 2008:
Dear Friends, Family, Mentors, and Colleagues,
Yesterday, Nero Nava and I finished shooting the final live action elements, and we’re now ready to forge full force into post production, i.e., editing and sound. With this grand announcement, I’m proud to say, it’s official; the world premier of The Doorway is set to for Thursday June 5th at 7:30pm.
In addition, Fliers and postcards are currently gracing the press, and if your in the Tri-Valley, you will soon see them posted at cafés, campuses, and etc. If you have any suggestions for a good location, please let me know. I encourage everyone spread the word, whether emailing links of the project web page, joelsimone.com/the-doorway, or simply inviting a friend, brother, lover, sister, mother, uncle, aunt, distant aunt, cousin, second cousin, or even some own who looks like a cousin.
For location details, maps, and further movie details visit The Doorway web page. This web location also includes a picture of the presentation facility – take a look; it’s nice, the LPC Lecture Hall.
I may send another announcement leading into the presentation and screening. For now, I will be focused on bringing the pieces together.
Again, thoughts are always welcome, so please feel free to comment on the web page, post a comment.
Sincerely,
Joel Simone
(formerly known as Orion Star)