My Weekend In Traction

Sunday, a day of rest. For me that holds especially true today. Yesterday, while giving my two dogs their baths I had a major incident. Now, my two dogs are both around 80 lbs. I have a lab mix named, Milli and a Golden Retriever, named Smuckers, after the dog on Seinfeld. After giving Smuckers her bath, it was Milli's turn. Both dogs dislike baths which sets the scene for said accident. While attempting to get Milli in the tub she decided it was not going to be a good idea, she pulls away and while grabbing her I slipped on the wet floor flat on my back with this huge dog on top of me. For those not in the know, about 3 years ago I had major surgery on my lower back which required 6 screws, two rods, fusion and removal of bone. Landing on my surgery site was not a good thing or comfortable one. That said, I sit in my office chair, moved from my office to my living room. The same chair I spent 12 weeks in after my surgery. The biggest difference is that I'm not on any pain medication which might make this particular blog much more interesting.

I have some time on my hands and much to ponder, complain and opine about while I sit and recover, thank God for laptops.

One thing I've been borderline obsessing about lately in my upcoming movie, Bone China. There is much going on behind the scenes right now but what's been on my mind is the title of the movie. Many people have asked me where I came up with it and it came about when I thought up the original short story behind the movie. I was traveling back home to Northern Virginia with my family and everyone in the car was sleeping. I'm in the middle of West Virginia in the mountains and I pop in my Mother Love Bone CD. While almost in a trace like state I began to dream up the idea which became the original short film screenplay. After I had worked out everything in my head, my CD was playing Bone China and I thought that it would be a great title for the movie. That's the long and short of it. I tied Bone China into the screenplay after the fact.

Many of you are probably saying, "Who the hell is Mother Love Bone?" I'm sure most of you know who Pearl Jam is but many people don't know is that band was born out of the band MLB. MLB was a pre-grunge band from Seattle before Nirvana made the music mainstream. The band made an EP called "Shine" and then on the eve of the release of their first full fledged album, "Apple," the lead singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose. He should have been the face of what would become the "grunge" sound. MLB is not what I would consider grunge and more importantly, neither did Andrew Wood, he considered their music "love rock."

Members of MLB that went on to become Pearl Jam were Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Wood's death also spawned the group Temple of the Dog, which included so many of the big names in the grunge era, including, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, and Layne Staley (who oddly enough died many years later from a drug O.D. as well.) Wood lyrics were well ahead of their time and so was MLB's music. Had Andrew Wood not died I believe MLB would have set the standard for the 90's music scene. So, lately as I have been pondering and working on how I am going to make Bone China I have been listening to a lot of MLB and before I start shooting I am going to round up a MLB t-shirt that I can wear during much of the production. I know sound weird, but I am a director, I am allowed weird. At Twenty One Productions we have had so many coincidences and "signs" over the last five years that I believe the MLB connection for this film exists and I do believe in it and it's significance to the making of this film. Remember, I'm not on pain meds as I write this! So call me crazy. Filmmaking is a crazy biz and I am going to embrace all the "signs" I can while I am making movies. We at Twenty One, all of us, are being looked over by something much larger than ourselves and to deny or ignore it would be a huge mistake.

Snap back; I would love to get Bone China licensed for the movie and if I could it will be the icing on the cake. So, for those of you who have never heard MLB I suggest grabbing a copy of their CD which was re-released many years ago which combines both "Shine" and "Apple." It's worth a listen. It was my buddy Steve who first brought MLB to my attention and once I heard them I was hooked!

On to new subjects. The other night I was watching Dateline and they did a story on an amateur filmmaking working on his horror movie which was going to turn him into the next big director. Thanks to the Blair Witch Project, which by the way was great marketing, but a suck ass movie. And this news story just went on to prove how that one film made everyone think they could make movies, myself included. Now the difference was that many, and I would dare say all, of the filmmakers who pursue their dream based on the Blair Witch phenomenon thought, "one movie" was all it was going to take to be the next "big" thing. We never did, we hoped but we knew that it would take time to hone our skills, and experience until we made that "one movie" which takes off. Most new filmmakers were, one and done.

Back to the Dateline story. They showed video of castings, and shooting on the set and it reminded me so much of what we were doing 5 years ago. And while I was proud of what I was doing then, I am so glad I have moved so far beyond that point in my career. Looking at the footage on T.V. made me cringe, just remembering what that whole process was like. Now, I don't think I am a "major" director or anything now, but I am amazed at how far we have come. It makes all that simplicity, all the mistakes and all that inexperience seem so long ago, yet worth all the pain and struggle. I'm just glad I'm not there anymore, but I'm glad I had to live through it.

BONE CHINA Teaser Site

The production of BONE CHINA is moving along nicely. We have just posted a teaser site for the movie, bonechinamovie.com. It is a teaser site but you can find links to news, the story and a production journal, with posts from myself, my producer and the screenwriter for the movie. As of this writing we have a verbal commitment from an actress in NYC to play one of the lead roles. Due to contractual reasons we cannot make an official announcement yet, but soon. However every other role, featured and supporting, is still uncast. We do have a long time composer Justin R. Durban from L.A. on board to do the score. You can listen to his work on edgen.com.

DIRECTING ACTORS

It's Sunday morning and I have been going over the script for the movie for the hundredth time. I'm trying to break down the characters and giving them a list of "action verbs" for each particular scene. I'm reading a great book right now called "Directing Actors" by Judith Weston, highly recommended for any director, experienced or otherwise. Anyway, she points out the difference between having the technical knowledge of a director and the skills of directing actors. It's very enlightening to say the least. It's helped me develop a new way to approach actors and explain a scene or idea. I've directed many actors but this is going to be a new way of dealing with them, the scenes and the whole movie. All for the better. I have always considered myself an "actor's director" but really I was still mostly a technical director. Since the majority of my films are character driven, I need to get the most out of each and every performance and BONE CHINA is no exception. In fact it relies mainly on the characters than almost anything I've every done.

We have gotten one major verbal commitment for an actor in NYC who will play a lead role in the film. No other roles have been cast yet but it's such a great start and it's going to be a thrill to work with them. Since almost all of our actors will be coming from either NYC or L.A. optimizing time of the set is going to be of the utmost importance. And a new approach to my directing will be a key. It's great to think of giving actors "playable" direction instead of vague, result oriented direction. No more, "Can you make it more quirky?" or "Faster and more intense." Sorry, George.

So for any directors, or actors for that matter, I suggest taking a look at this book. It'll help directors understand what will make the actors job easier and most genuine and actors can even get an insight of the directors process. It can help them communicate more clearly with directors and help ask "the right" questions to get the most out of their craft.

-Russell Johnson

AND WE'RE OFF

Welcome to this first entry into the BONE CHINA production journals. Here we will post info about any and all aspects of the production of the movie. By "we" I mean director, Russell Johnson, producer, David Cottingham and writer, Mat Raney. For now anyway. Once we get deeper into production we may add some more people into the mix such as more crew and maybe even a few cast member. Who knows? Here we go!

Remember, "Punch" is always watching!