The Citizen Kane of Bad Cinema?

I've been trying to fit as much as I possibly can into my last week or two of summer before I go back to the grind of school. Everything from staying out late to midnight showings of movies I love.

Okay, I exaggerate, it's only been one midnight showing, but it was a movie I love. I saw a midnight showing of The Evil Dead at the Oriental Theater. It was a really neat exploitation/grindhouse theater experience. It showed schlocky trailers for cult classic films that feature outrageous stories and even more outrageous gore. I love it. I love cult cinema and have a very open mind for it. The film and all of it's trailers were presented in 35mm film. I got to see one of my favorite movies on film in an amazing theatre filled with people.

This being said, there are some films that confuse me. I don't get why they're so popular. The other day my friends Greg and Vanessa invited me to a little double feature of bad films that they were holding. The first film was Trey Parker's musical story about Alfred Packer, "Cannibal! The Musical" and Tommy Wiseau's psuedo-drama "The Room". It was the first time I have seen them. I didn't know anything about "Cannibal" but I've heard so much about "The Room". It has a wicked big fan base and is considered "the Citizen Kane of bad cinema". With this much of a build-up, I was expecting something amazingly bad but amazingly fun. I was wrong. I really don't get the big deal about "The Room".

Now, I know some people are going to say "Oh, you don't get this kind of cinema" or "you haven't seen it in a theatre with all the games and what not". Well, first, I do get this kind of cinema. Second, I don't feel one needs to play "games" while watching a movie to enjoy it and third, we did play all of these games while watching. It's bad, yes. But it's not all that funny. It was like a porno with more story. There is nothing in this movie that makes me want to come back to it like, say, The Evil Dead, Plan 9 From Outer Space or Class of Nuke 'Em High has. Am I happy I saw it? Yes. Was it fun to see with friends? Yes. Is it as great as everyone makes it out to be? No. Well, not to me atleast.

There are two types of bad movies. Bad movies which were made truely believing they were good and there are movies that were made to be bad on purpose. For me, The Room doesn't know what it wants to be. I've heard some say Wiseau made it intentionally to be funny, when I've heard from others that that wasn't the case. I'm leaning towards the later. Seriously, a guy that doesn't know the difference between High Def and Standard I don't think gets how to be intentionally bad. I think he realized his masterpiece was really bad and just milked it.

I do, on the other hand, have to give him credit. Somehow this man raised something like 3 million dollars by himself to fund this movie. He then had it released and created a fan base. That's impressive no matter how you spin in and I have to respect that. Even with that, though, I can't seem to be able to get behind this film. To me, there's a big difference between say, Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Tommy Wiseau. The difference, for me, is: Ed got filmmaking. He truely did. He understood what made it good, what made it bad and what he had to do. He just sucked at it, but he made the best damn movies he could! You can feel it! Tommy Wiseau, on the other hand, doesn't get it. You'd think a movie that had 3 million shilled into it would be a bit more fun.

I hope all of the fans of The Room and Tommy Wiseau (that includes the Tim and Eric fans, because I've heard he was on the show) don't completely hate me. No offense was intended, just ranting in one of the few forums I know someone may actually see it.

The Wheels of Fire Have Begun To Turn Again...

It sure has been a while since I've updated this. I've felt it's useless to update if I have nothing of importance to talk about. Well, I finally have something to say. I'm involved in a new project: Producing Void (blue).

I'm sure I've spoken about this project before, but I'll re-cap in case I haven't. Greg, a friend of mine in film school, made a film in High School called "Void". It was an eerie video that I still don't quite understand but reminds me of a modern-day fairytale for some reason.

Well, a year or two later, he has felt it's time to re-investigate the idea and re-make and extend it. Void was Evil Dead and this is Evil Dead -- part re-make part new idea. Well as he was writing it he asked if I wanted to Produce. I accepted.

For almost an entire semester, which isn't that long, we've been preparing. We still aren't completely ready to begin full-on production but we have enough to shoot a few scenes.

We shot the first scene on Monday. It wasn't the fun, easy shoot I was hoping. Greg recently had surgery and couldn't do a lot of heavy lifting. I was still sick from a few days before. The school was hot as hell and the two hours we were there felt like four.

I'm not sure how much I can go into as far as the scene goes, but it involved a canvas, trick photography and a rather annoying dolly shot we tried to do with a computer chair. I'm not sure how many of you have tried to use a computer chair as a dolly, but it's hard because it doesn't like to go in a straight line. Ours liked to veer left. That was annoying.

After the day of shooting I was feeling light headed and annoyed. Greg seemed stressed. I'm not sure how the footage turned out. I heard it was good, but I'm still worried about sitting down at the editing room and playing with it. We'll have to see.

I promise a better update is to come.