The pope in the pool should watch out for that glacier while laying pipe to save the cat from the black vet

I finished reading Blake Snyder's guide on screenwriting entitled "Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need." While I initially found Snyder's casual writing style a breath of fresh air in it's simplicity and laid-back voice, after awhile I have to admit it did start to become more grating. Mostly this just occurred when he was trying to be funny, but really he was just coming across as being over-opinionated to the point where he was sounding a little full of himself. For example, this happens a lot whenever he's bashing the movie Signs (which he does like to do a lot).  Okay, so the movie may have it's flaws, but the way he just so unabashedly rips in it as if he is the ultimate say in what is good and bad in films kinda got to me.  He even goes as far as to encourage anyone who disagrees with him about the film to challenge him via email.

The thing that's probably most unique about his screenwriting guide when compared the vast amount of other books on the subject that are available, is his quirky examples for remembering certain rules when writing a film.  The title of this blog is a mashing of five of these examples.  As silly as they sound, they really do work for remembering the rules of screenwriting.  I remember studying for vocab tests in high school, and how a trick I'd use to memorize the troublesome words was to come up with a phrase or trick to remember them by.  This tactic, in theory, is exactly the same as Snyder's technique for remembering such rules as: in order to make your protagonist likable, have them do something at the beginning akin to "saving a cat."  I like his goofy examples, because it truly does help me memorize the rules he lays out.  

"I'd give my left ass cheek for a piece of black cloth"

It was a week ago this evening when I was acting as 1st camera person for a shoot that truly was a once in a life time opportunity.  2008 marks the 35th anniversary for one of my all time favorite films, American Graffiti.  To celebrate this occasion, the town where they shot most of the film, Petaluma (which neighbors my home town of San Rafael), decided to go all out for their annual American Graffiti/classic car celebration.  They decided to stage a re-enactment of the famous scene where a cop car gets its rear wheels pulled off as part of an gang initiation Richard Dreyfuss' character takes part in.  So it was my job to frame up, and then shoot as similarly as possible the original shots from the film.

What was so cool was how I could use background references since it was the exact same location for lining them up.  In the big stunt at the end, I was able to determine where about the camera was originally placed based on the angle of the theater marquee in the background as well as the angle of the sidewalk in front of the lot where the cop car pulls out.  In the instance of that same shot, one of the original cameramen from the film take a look at my set up and confirmed that it looked like that's "about where they had it" back in 1972.  Here's a video on the event, which probably will give a better sense of it than I can (I'm the one on the right who yells 'rolling!'). 

Oh yeah!  That video reminded me of another extremely cool aspect of the evening.  Academy Award winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was there a part of the original crew.  Out of the all the original crew who was there, he was definitely the most kind, approachable, and down-to-earth.  He gave me some personal camera direction, as well as was nice enough to sign an American Graffiti still of mine.  William Maley, gaffer on the film, was there to recreate the original lighting setup as best as possible.  Bill was the extremely surly one of the bunch.  He's the one who was the source of this blog's titular line about how he'd give a portion of his behind for a piece of black cloth in order to help filter some lights.  

By the end of it all, I not only was still buzzing from just how awesome it was to be playing such a big role in the recreation of a scene from one of my all time favorite movies, but after having met and worked with both the like of Wexler and Maley, I got a new appreciation for how important it is to be working with good people whose company you enjoy and who you can respect on a professional level, as well.  Now that I'm just a couple weeks away from finishing my four year stint at UC Santa Cruz, I really am happy for the wonderful wonderful filmmaking atmosphere the school has provided.  I've met and worked with a lot of great people whom I hope to continue to do so with post-college, and as well have had a solid amount of professors from who I learned a lot and will always be thankful for all the time they've helped me. 

Does it really have to end?

Watching American Graffiti again before the shoot reminded me that yes, it really is ending, change, and eras coming to an end, is just a part of life. 

Happy days!